A psychiatric report has detailed the profound and far-reaching consequences of the sexual and emotional abuse the woman, now 24, suffered at the hands of her parents for almost her entire childhood.

The woman is now putting herself through university, but the report, parts of which were read out in court, detailed how the abuse had been "catastrophically devastating to her entire person".

Her father will most likely die in jail after he was sentenced to a maximum of 48 years in jail with a non-parole period of 36 years in the Sydney Downing Centre District Court on Friday.

Her mother was sentenced to a maximum of 16 years in jail, and will be eligible for release after 11 years.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Sarah Huggett described the offences committed against the woman, starting from when she was aged 5 and continuing to when she was 19, as "depravity of an almost unimaginable magnitude". The daughter was not in the court room, but watched the sentencing of her parents over two days via audio-visual link.

To the public eye, her parents were successful, intelligent and community-minded. They were elite athletes and coached their daughter, who was a talented sportsperson and had achieved national and international success.

Supportive character references said the mother, who had studied psychology and run her own business, was "loving and nurturing" and "always willing to help out a good cause", while the father, who was a trainer and held a presitgious job, was described as a "down to earth person who is never angry".

But Judge Huggett said both were the antithesis of the image they conveyed to those around them and they had conditioned their daughter to accept their abuse of her as normal.

The father raped, beat and mutilated her – tying her up, surrounding her in barbed wire, and locking her in an old chicken coop or a tiny box used for diving gear for nights on end on their rural NSW property.

She was forced to eat hot chilies, stand on ants nests and eat her own vomit and was threatened with the "shed" if she performed poorly in sports events.

Her mother also sexually abused her multiple times, including on one occasion with the father, and gave her advice on how to arouse and satisfy him, saying: "It makes it better if you make noises, it would make it better for you and Dad".

Judge Huggett said it was difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the harm the daughter had suffered and acknowledged that no sentence she imposed could adequately reflect it.

The court heard the daughter would now often sink into memories of the abuse and hours later would have no recollection of what she had been doing. She was unable to sleep well, and needed to switch on lights to reorientate herself.

"The victim frequently experiences nightmares and flashbacks that are frequently so intense and overwhelming she is unable to attend her daily activities," a psychiatric report found.

"She has internalised many negative and hostile messages from her childhood that she unworthy, worthless and that being upset is a sign of weakness that deserves punishment."

Her extreme emotions, dissociative state and flashbacks had been life-threatening and the court case against her parents had made her feel like her "life was on hold".

The court heard she also had long-term physical damage, including from the tools her father had used to abuse her.

In a victim impact statement, the daughter said she would be "forever damaged" and "every part of her life and her person has been affected in some way".

She said she was trying to find a way forward and had gone back to TAFE, finished year 12 and was now putting herself through a degree at university.

"Now, on this day and every day for the rest of my life, I have to find some way to move on from his abuse," she said.

It was in 2011, when the woman had spent time in a mental clinic and been subject to further assaults by her father, that she gave police a full statement about the abuse she had endured.

Police found bloodied underpants and tools she had buried as a child when they searched the property. They also found words including "trapped" etched into the old chicken coop.

A jury found the father guilty of 73 offences and the mother guilty of 13 offences, after a 12-week trial earlier this year.

Neither of the parents have ever admitted their guilt or shown any remorse. They had defended each other, although the court heard they now intended to divorce.

Judge Huggett accepted that the mother was drawn into the abuse of the daughter by the father, but said she had breached her position of trust in "the most serious ways".

The earliest the father, now 59, will be eligible for parole is 2049, while the mother, 51, will be eligible for release in 2027.