Family members of victims sexually assaulted by a Winnipeg couple cursed and sobbed in court Tuesday, upset at what they felt were lenient penalties handed down to the husband and wife.

The 25-year-old woman was released after Justice Gerald Jewers gave her a sentence equal to the approximately two years she had already spent in pretrial custody. Her 39-year-old common-law husband was given another seven years behind bars.

CTV Winnipeg's Kelly Dehn reported that the two victim's families reacted in shock to the sentences.

"One woman was crying as she was walking out of the courtroom, saying that (the wife) was Manitoba's answer to Karla Homolka," Dehn reported. "She says she could not believe what she was hearing in that courtroom."

The couple sexually assaulted young girls they lured into their home. The wife was convicted of three charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement, while her husband was convicted of eight charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

In handing down the sentences, Justice Jewers argued the couple had not had any serious prior convictions. Jewers also said not all of the counts could be proven to his satisfaction.

"The crown was seeking a sentence of 16 to 18 years .... but (the husband) was handed a further seven-year sentence and he was smiling as he was being led out of the courtroom," Dehn reported.

Crown prosecutor Jill Duncan had argued for lengthy jail terms, citing "the extent of the depravity and perverseness of this case.''

She told the court late last month that the couple is "evil incarnate" for running a house of horrors, in which young girls were lured with promises of free liquor and drugs, and then brutally raped.

The court heard that the couple welcomed neighborhood youths by offering alcohol and marijuana for several years beginning in 1999.

One victim, who was 13 when the crimes began, told the court how she was held as a "sex slave" by the couple for several months.

She said the man, now 34, threatened to get members of a Winnipeg street gang and the Hells Angels to come after her family if she didn't comply with his demands.

The girl said that on at least two occasions, she was tied to a bed after being given pills and alcohol, then raped by the husband while his wife looked on.

She also claimed the man proudly showed her to his criminal friends, saying "this is the one" as he kept her in a locked room for nearly four consecutive days.

Duncan told the court that the common-law wife was also a willing participant in some of the sex assaults.

The case has drawn comparisons to the sex slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls in the hands of Paul Bernardo and Homolka.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Kelly Dehn and files from The Canadian Press