In Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, Crysta Abelseth was ordered to turn over custody of her teenage daughter. And to pay her accused rapist child support.
The story was first reported by WBRZ, a Baton Rouge television station.
Abelseth was 16 years old when she met then 30-year-old John Barnes. She was at a bar with 2 friends in Hammond in 2005.
Abelseth told an interviewer that Barnes promised to give her a ride home from a local restaurant after a night out with 2 friends.
Instead, he took her to his house. And raped her on his living room couch.
The next morning, she woke up naked on the bathroom floor.
Abelseth became pregnant. But she did not report the rape to the police at the time. “Everyone assumed it (the pregnancy) was from a boyfriend, and I let them believe that,” Abelseth told the TV station.
The teen had a daughter, who is now about the same age as Abelseth was when she got pregnant.
“When my daughter was five years old, he found out about her, and once he found out about her, he pursued custody and wanted to take her away from me,” Abelseth told WBRZ. “They granted him 50-50 custody although [the child] was caused by rape.”
