OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has re-imposed a tougher sentence on a Quebec man convicted of sexually assaulting his four-year-old daughter and taking pornographic pictures of her and a young friend.

The high court ruled 8-1 that the Quebec Court of Appeal erred when it reduced the 15-year-sentence imposed on the man, identified only as L.M.

The appeals court cut the sentence to nine years.

The high court said appeals judges should only tinker with sentences in cases where they are demonstrably unfit.

Justice Louis LeBel wrote that the sentenced was justified in light of what he called the highly reprehensible acts involved.

Justice Morris Fish dissented, saying the original sentence was overly severe in comparison to sentences in similar cases.