WBRZ<\/a> that she was raped when she was 16 years old by a man almost twice her age, who offered to drive her home.<\/p>\n“Instead of taking me home, he took me to his house,” Abelseth told John Barnes, who was 30 at the time. “When we went inside he raped me on the living room sofa.”<\/p>\n
The teenager became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, who is already herself in her teens.<\/p>\n
“Everyone thought I was pregnant with my boyfriend, and I let them believe that,” says Abelseth.<\/p>\n
Barnes returned to this story about five years later when he learned that the child could be his.<\/p>\n
“When my daughter was about 5 years old, he found out about her and asked for custody to take the baby from me,” says Abelseth, adding that the DNA test showed almost certainly that he was the father.<\/p>\n
“And they gave him 50\/50 custody despite the fact that the child was born as a result of the rape.”<\/p>\n
Abelseth filed rape charges against Barnes in 2015 when he learned he was within the Louisiana state time limits for the charge.<\/p>\n
But the woman says that although the case is open to Tangipahoa police no charges have been filed against the perpetrator.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old now says she fails to get consideration from the justice system and has lost custody of her daughter after allegations that she had secretly given him a cell phone.<\/p>\n
“He has acquaintances,” Abelseth told Barnes, who owns a local digital company that works with police.<\/p>\n
“He has threatened me several times, saying that he has recognition in the justice system. “He told me he could take my daughter whenever he wanted, but I did not believe him until it really happened.”<\/p>\n
The woman’s lawyer, Stacie Triche, said: \u201cWhen I learned that she was a rape victim and the rapist was taking full custody of the child, I intervened to do something. She has been forced to pay the perpetrator of the rape, and pay court costs. That’s not logical. “<\/p>\n
Legal commentators say that even the act of rape can not be proven, the age difference between Abelseth and Barnes is in itself a rape as the age of sexual acceptance in the state of Louisiana is 17 years old.<\/p>\n
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