Dunedin woman and her father plead guilty to incest charges

A father and daughter had an incestuous relationship after being estranged for most of their lives, a court has heard.

This week the man in his 50s and the woman in her 20s – both of whom have name suppression – pleaded guilty to three counts of incest before the Dunedin District Court.

Court documents detailed how the pair initially connected on a trip to the North Island when the woman was a teenager but they lost contact again until 2020.

After a meeting in Dunedin, the woman travelled to Christchurch where she stayed with her father and his partner for several days.

“Their time together allowed them to quickly form a close bond, which progressed to being in a sexual relationship,” a police summary said.

The pair subsequently exchanged thousands of messages “declaring their love for each other” and discussing their intimacy in explicit detail.

In January, the male defendant visited his daughter three times over six days, during which the sexual contact took place.

The court heard after the visits the duo exchanged intimate photos through social media and described their sexual fantasies for their coming meetings.

Their forbidden relationship was discovered when the woman’s partner returned home from a night shift and became suspicious of the sudden closeness between father and daughter.

When he checked her phone, he found the graphic messages, which prompted a confrontation.

“In response she asked him not to tell anyone about the relationship with her father as she did not wish to go to jail,” the summary of facts said.

When the woman was approached by police she admitted the crimes and stressed it had been consensual.

She said on one occasion her father had kissed her on the lips and told her: “parents can do that to their kids”.

The woman told officers she was mentally unwell at the time.

Her counsel Sarah Saunderson-Warner requested no convictions be entered against her client’s name.

A discharge without conviction would be sought at her sentencing in February, she said.

Both defendants were remanded on bail and will be sentenced on different dates that month.