A MEXICAN MAN has been arrested on suspicion of holding his two teenage daughters in captivity for up to seven years, repeatedly raping and sexually abusing them, and killing one of them.

The man, named by Reuters as Jorge Iniestra, a part-time taxi driver, is said to have began a relationship with the girls’ mother, a school worker, in 2004 – but quickly became obsessed with the daughters.

He is said to have locked the two girls in a room in his mother’s house with boarded windows, and repeatedly raped and abused them – fathering five children with them.

Having eventually beaten one of his step-daughters to death, Iniestra then asphyxiated her three-month-old son by forcing him to nurse from the girl’s body.

The room they were held captive in would never be cleaned, the city’s attorney general told a news conference, with the girls’ younger brother forced to clean his sisters’ urine and defecations by hand.

The younger brother was also forced to collect cardboard and sell candles on the street, apparently himself being physically abused if he did not raise enough money.

The girls’ mother Clara Tapia, 44, was aware of Iniestra’s actions; prosecutors said she lived in fear of her partner and had given him her entire savings, but that a complaint she had filed is what had ultimately led to the discovery of his actions.

AP said Tapia had also been arrested for helping to cover up the crimes. The surviving daughter, 21, and four young children – aged 5, 4, 2 and three months – have been take into protective care.

They are alleged to have defended Iniestra’s behaviour when questioned by police.

Additional reporting by AP