Man jailed for stepdaughter rape

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/7981554.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A man who raped his teenage stepdaughter making her pregnant before she suffered a miscarriage, has been jailed for 12 years.

His offences over a period of two years only came to light after the girl, who believed the man to be her biological father, contacted her aunt.

Judge David Morris told Cardiff Crown Court there had been a "breach of trust" by the man.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and three of common assault.

The court heard the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, threatened to bury his stepdaughter in the ground if she spoke out about the abuse.

She became pregnant with his child but suffered a miscarriage when she was 16.

Prosecutor Tracey Lloyd Nesling said the man told her to tell people the father was a boy at school.

This was a breach of trust as she treated you as her father and she believed that's what you were. Judge David Morris

When she came out of hospital after the miscarriage, he began pestering her for sex, Ms Lloyd Nesling told the court.

"From the time she was 16 she was repeatedly raped by the defendant," she said.

"He would engineer situations to have sex with her.

"He would make her share a room with him on family holidays.

"He was very controlling of her, he stopped her going out with friends and didn't like her being in contact with boys. He would delete their numbers from her mobile phone."

The court heard the stepfather was only caught after the girl sent a text message to her aunt saying what had happened.

Ms Lloyd Nesling said: "She texted her aunt saying she wanted to kill herself.

"It was only when the police became involved she found out the defendant was not her natural father."

'Repeated attacks'

Elizabeth Pearson, defending, said the man had been abused "at home and in the care of social services" as a child.

Judge Morris said: "The facts are you engineered a number of repeated attacks of rape on your stepdaughter.

"These attacks went on from when she was 16 for about two years.

"This was a breach of trust as she treated you as her father and she believed that's what you were.

"I take into account the gravity of these offences and the seriousness of them."

Judge Morris jailed him for a total of 12 years and said he would have to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely.