Crysta Abelseth, who was 16 at the time of the alleged attack in 2005, told the local news station that a judge had given full custody of the teen to John Barnes, the child’s biological father and the 30-year-old man who raped her. their daughter. “When my daughter was five years old, she found out and as soon as she found out, she took care of him and wanted to take her away from me,” Ms Abelsheth, 32, told the WBRZ. “They gave him 50/50 custody despite the fact that [the child] caused by rape “. A DNA test was performed to prove that Barnes was indeed the father, according to court documents. The results showed a match with 99.97 percent accuracy. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Barnes was reportedly 30 years old and Ms. Abelseth was 16 years old, which in Louisiana is considered illegal, even if there was consent. When the couple met in 2005, Mr. Barnes reportedly asked her if he could accompany her home from a restaurant in Tangipaho, Louisiana, where they had met. “Instead of taking me home, he took me to his house,” Ms. Abelseth said in an interview with the news station. “As soon as he came in, he raped me on the couch in his living room.” Ms Abelseth did not prosecute Mr Barnes until seven years ago because, as she told the WBRZ, she did not know how to navigate the law and mistakenly thought that if she had not reported it by the next day, she would not have had legal action. recourse. A trauma counselor, however, later informed the woman that she had 30 years to report the crime after she turned 18. In a report she filed with the Tangipaho Parish Sheriff’s Office, which was seen by the WBRZ, she provided details of the alleged attack. According to the news agency, the investigation into the allegations remains open at the Tangipaho Parish Sheriff’s Office and Ms Abelsheth said her case “was never assigned to a detective”. The Independent contacted the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office for comment, but received no response prior to publication. The case took an even more dramatic turn this year, when Ms. Abelseth was also ordered to pay child support to the alleged perpetrator, all because she allegedly gave her teenage daughter a cell phone. The next hearing in Ms Abelseth’s case to revoke Mr Barnes’s parental rights is scheduled for next month. The WBRZ Research Unit contacted Mr Barnes by telephone, acknowledging that he was the father of Ms Abelset’s daughter, but referred all questions to his lawyer, who never returned to the media. The Independent tried to contact Mr. Barnes for comment, but was unable to contact him.
