A mother burst into tears as she was jailed for letting her husband rape and impregnate her daughter three times when she was only 12 years old. She was told by a judge that she must take her guilt to her grave.

The 44-year-old was described in court as an evil and wicked step-father and was jailed for 20 years after a jury convicted him of impregnating his step-daughter.

His wife, the girl’s birth mother, had allowed the abuse to take place and refused to listen when her daughter pleaded for help for fear that her husband would end their relationship.

The couple’s sentencing had been delayed when the woman defendant suffered a panic attack on the morning she was due to appear via video link before a packed public gallery at Aylesbury Crown Court.

As the mother burst into tears, as she appeared via video link to receive her sentence for neglect, sentencing judge, Francis Sheridan told her: “The tears you shed are for yourself. I do not think any of them are for your daughter.

“I am not in any way influenced. You have not shown any sign of remorse.

“It is time somebody told you to your face – and I will: You were a wicked mother. When your daughter complained, her complaints were dismissed.

“You will take that dismissal to the grave. You betrayed your daughter to stand by your husband.

“She has gone through what can only be described as a life of hell. There must have been times in her young life where there appeared to be almost no remission from abuse.”

The step-father, referred to as the first defendant, began sexually assaulting his victim when she was aged 10 years while they were on holiday in Southport and then continuously raped and sexually assaulted his victim in her own home until she was 16 years old.

At one point his brother, a man who had spent some time in a mental hospital, was left alone with the step daughter and also began to rape her.

When the step-father learned of this, he continued to allow the brother to visit the family home.

Prosecuting counsel, Angus Robertson, described an incident where the step-father raped the young girl while they were in the living room watching football on TV and the mother shouted downstairs to ask what they were doing

The step-father had shouted back ‘nothing’, and no more was said but the girl maintained in court the mother had known.

Mr Robertson said: “When she was aged 12 years, she found she was pregnant. She had a termination of the pregnancy. She did not want to have that termination. The first defendant told the second defendant that if the pregnancy wasn’t terminated he would end the relationship and leave her.

“The second defendant always insisted that a young man was responsible and the girl should tell the boy he was the father. The first defendant continued to have regular intercourse with the victim after that termination.

“She became pregnant again when she was 13 years old, told her mother the father was the first defendant and said they could have her child. Both defendants were attempting to have a child of their own. Her mother considered this, but told her to ‘get rid of it’.”

The judge said two of the girl’s pregnancies were undoubtedly conceived after the step-father raped her and there was some question over the third – the girl had, in her own words, become “wayward” as a result of the abuse and taken boyfriends from a very young age.

Addressing the step-father, a bald man who appeared in a white shirt via video link, and kept his head bowed throughout, Judge Sheridan said: “You were a thoroughly evil and wicked stepfather. Let’s call it exactly what it is. That is the finding of the jury.

“The jury believed your stepdaughter. That is her first step to recovery from a life of hell inflicted by you, with the sex drive of a monster.

“You treated your step-daughter as an object. If you wanted sexual contact, she had to deliver and the poor little thing was scared to say anything and when she did, her complaints were dismissed.

“A little girl, an innocent little girl, corrupted and for those years whilst under your care, her life was ruined.”

The girl’s mother, aged 50 years, realised the abuse was happening at the family home in Milton Keynes, in April 2003, when the girl was just 12 years old but she refused to believe her daughter and took no steps to protect her for the next four years as the abuse continued.

It was only years later that the daughter found the courage to complain to police. But her mother and step-father denied all the charges brought against them.

In her victim statement, the daughter told how she felt like she could not breathe as she took to the stand in front of the jury.

Judge Sheridan told the court: “Her whole life has been trawled through in the course of this case.”

The mother burst into tears as her husband was jailed for 20 years for the rapes and indecent assaults and she awaited her own sentence for neglect of her child.

Judge Sheridan told her: “Your first marriage was violent, I am prepared to accept that. You then married your second husband, who was a complete brute.

“For reasons of nature and no other, you were unable to have a baby and he turned to your flesh and blood to satisfy his sexual desires.

“You played a part in hiding it because you were set to blame any boyfriend that you thought might fit the bill. That was wicked because your daughter made it clear they were not the father – but you dismissed it.

“She had to undergo a number of terminations and she did so for certain at the hands of your husband. Your own little girl’s complaints, she turned to you to make.”

The judge told the mother he would have sentenced her to four years imprisonment but he reduced it to three years because her daughter had spoken out in mitigation for her during the trial.

“She conceded that on occasions you could be a kind mother but it is outweighed at least on those counts by your hard approach to your daughter. She wants no further contact with you. She wants you out of her life.”

He sentenced her to three years imprisonment and put a restraining order forbidding all contact between her and the daughter or her grandchildren, which would be in force indefinitely. (Mirror)

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