WINNIPEG -- A Manitoba man who kidnapped his two kids and hid them in Mexico has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Kevin Maryk of Winnipeg pleaded guilty in June to kidnapping his children in 2008 and keeping them in a heavily guarded home for four years.

Judge Ted Lismer said Maryk abused his position of trust and deprived the children of their mother and of a normal childhood.

"(Maryk) subjected them to live behind locked doors, barbed wire and surveillance cameras," Lismer said in his decision Thursday.

"He gravely abused them psychologically in depriving them for four years of a normal school education and association with other children."

The judge gave Maryk credit for time served, which leaves just over a year on the sentence.

The Crown had asked for five years behind bars, saying Maryk didn't allow the boy and girl to go to school and forced them to live as virtual prisoners in a heavily guarded house.

The defence, arguing Maryk made a mistake based on concern for his children, wanted his immediate release based on credit for time served in Canada and Mexico.

Maryk took his children from his former wife, Emily Cablek, during a court-ordered visit on Aug. 16, 2008, shortly after Cablek was awarded custody. At the time, Abby was about to turn six and Dominic was seven.

The four years the children spent without their mother are an "irretrievable loss," Lismer said. The children are now struggling in school and lag far behind their peers, he said.

Despite that, Maryk shows a "lack of remorse for this abdication which lasted for four long years."

Defence lawyer Todd Bourcier had told court that Maryk was worried the children's mother was returning to a life of prostitution and drug use. There is no chance Maryk would attempt to abduct Dominic or Abby again, he said.

Bourcier told the judge Maryk is not "the monster the Crown is making him out to be" but rather "a father who made a bad mistake."

Police got a break in the case in 2012 when a neighbour in Guadalajara called authorities after recognizing the children in a Crime Stoppers video that aired in Mexico. They were brought back to their mother in Winnipeg.

In a recorded police statement played for the judge, Cablek said both children have struggled to catch up in school and make friends since they returned. She said she is terrified something terrible will happen again and worries about her children being in contact with their father.

Crown attorney Debbie Buors alleged the children were exposed to prostitution, drugs and alcohol in Mexico and were only taken out of their home at night. She told the judge the house where they were kept had cameras inside and out, thick chains on the outside door and bars on the main door.