The Montreal father accused in the so-called honour killing of his three daughters testified his children were cruel to him even though he was a loving, lenient dad.

Mohammad Shafia also wept when speaking of the brief marriage of his eldest daughter, saying he did not want her to marry her boyfriend because he didn't think he was "good." The marriage was annulled within 24 hours.

Shafia, 58, is accused in the first-degree murders of his daughters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17 and Geeti, 13, and his first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 52.

They were found drowned on June 30, 2009 inside a car in a canal near Kingston, Ont.

The defence began presenting its case Thursday, with Shafia testifying.

During his testimony, he portrayed himself quite differently from the Crown's characterization, which alleged that Shafia was a strict father whose children feared him.

He also defended himself against his own words caught on a wiretap.

When asked what he meant by saying if his children came back to life 100 times he would "do the same again," Shafia said he meant "give them good advice."

The wiretap also overheard him saying, "May the devil (defecate) on their graves."

Shafia said it was a cultural misunderstanding, a common phrase in his native tongue of Dari, an Afghan dialect.

"To me it means that the devil would go out and check with them in graves," Shafia said through an interpreter. "If they have done a good thing it would be good, if they did bad it would be up to God, what to do."

Shafia said he gave his children allowances and did not insist they wear a hijab.

He said he didn't interfere in how his daughters dressed, but that a picture he found of his 17-year-old daughter wearing a short skirt and hugging a boy made him angry. He said he found the photo after the deaths.

Shafia's wife, Tooba Yahya, 41, and their son Hamed, 20, have also been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Yahya wept in court when her husband did.

The Crown presented its case to the court over the past six weeks, and accuses the family of staging the canal scene to look like an accident.

The court heard from teachers and social workers that testified the Shafia girls were afraid of their strict father.

Shafia admitted during cross-examination on Thursday afternoon that he thought his daughters' behaviour was damaging the family's reputation.

However, he denied Crown attorney Laurie Lacelle's suggestion that Shafia knew all four family members wanted out of the home.

"No, they were happy," Shafia said.

Shafia did acknowledge he knew about Sahar's suicide attempt, though he couldn't remember if he was at home or out of the country on business at the time.

The Crown alleges the daughters were killed in honour slayings because the oldest two girls' choice of boyfriends and dress.

The family, originally from Afghanistan, was coming home from a trip to Niagara Falls at the time of the deaths.

With files from The Canadian Press