A Melbourne mother who was in a sexual relationship with her nephew helped him rape her 12-year-old daughter in what would spark years of abuse.
The court heard the girl was being attacked by her cousin when she cried out for help but instead of stopping it the mother helped hold her child down so she could get a better view, reports The Melbourne Age.
“The girl is crying and it’s hurting . . . and [the mother] holds the leg so she can see what’s happening,” prosecutor Michael Hennessy told the court on Wednesday.
The girl told police she was a target of her cousin’s sexual abuse since 2011 when she was 12 until 2014, when she was 15. It only stopped once the man was arrested when she told one of her older siblings about the rapes.
On Wednesday the 42-year-old man pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria to persistent sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16.
The 55-year-old woman – who reportedly participated in the single attack – pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child and an indecent act with a child.
The mother and her nephew began a sexual relationship in 2011 when the woman’s marriage broke up and he let her and the daughter move into one of his houses.
The nephew’s defence said the man had expressed remorse in a letter to the daughter, who is now 17.
But Judge Claire Quin was not satisfied.
According to The Age, Judge Quin said: “Reading the whole tenor of it, I don’t see it.”
The hearing was adjourned until Friday.
