Mother 'covered up boyfriend's rape of her daughter so she could have child with him', court hears

The victim's mother did nothing to stop the abuse and fabricated a story about her daughter being made pregnant by a boy she met at a party to cover the crime, prosecutors allege

DNA evidence proved the woman was sexually assaulted by her husband, Reading Crown Court heard (Martin Halfpenny PA Archive/PA Images)

A mother who was unable to have children after an operation agreed to let her boyfriend rape her 14-year-old daughter so they could have a child of their own, a court heard.

Her boyfriend, now 75-years-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sexually assaulted his 10-year-old step-daughter in the 1970s and later raped her in his downstairs “den”, prosecutors allege.

During the trial at Reading Crown Court, the jury was told the victim's mother did nothing to stop the abuse and fabricated a story about her daughter being made pregnant by a boy she met at a party.

In her plan, the mother would tell friends and family the lie in a bid to cover up her crime, the court heard. She allegedly told her daughter to continue having sex with her boyfriend in a bid to maintain a "peaceful life".

The young girl later became pregnant and bore her mother’s boyfriend’s son.

The abuse began when the defendant and the victim were driving home with fried chicken and stopped off at the Slough Trading Estate, which was made famous by BBC series The Office, prosecuting Charles Ward-Jackson told the court.

"On the way back he stopped the car at a quiet spot in the Slough Trading Estate. He turned to the complainant and put his hand up her skirt into her knickers.

"Even after the passage of many years she remembers it hurt her and told him to stop. He told her not to tell anyone and, in this instance, put it in a menacing way saying 'it would be bad for your mother if she found out'," Mr Ward-Jackson said.

In an interview with the police, the victim said: “I was trying to get his hands off me. He was strong. I couldn't. I don't even known what I thought at the time, I was only little, I didn't know if it was what everybody goes through or if it is just you. I carried on until it happened again and again."

The stepfather would sneak into the victim’s room and rape her as her sister slept in the same room, prosecutors said. If she said no, he would warn her either her or her mother would get hurt. Sometimes he would physically assault her by pinching her ears with his fingernails so hard that she would bleed.

“She remembers another occasion as her stepfather was in the bedroom having sex with her when her mother was calling out to the him and saying 'what are you doing with her? You should be in bed with me' which suggested to her that her mother knew what was going on,” prosecuting Mr Ward-Jackson said.

Later, the victim would be summoned in a room downstairs called “the den”, which had been created by parting the living room.

Her abuser would give her £5 to have sex with her once a week, when she was a teenager, the jury was told.

She said: "I would get up and clean myself up and go about my business. Everyone else was in the other room and I would sit down and watch the telly. When I started saying no, it turned violent. He used to kick me and just hurt me. He was always smacking us for being naughty and he used to get the leather belt. He started with me when I said 'I'm not having sex with you any more'."

The victim did not realise that she had become pregnant and it only became apparent to her family five months into her pregnancy, the court heard.

The defendant was absent from the dock during the trial and denies seven counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape of a child.

When he was arrested by police two-years-ago, he denied, having sex with his step-daughter and insisted he was not the boy's father.

The trial continues.