'Father and daughter' on incest charges

Photo / Herald on Sunday

A woman who went overseas to meet her long-lost father is now on trial accused of incest.

The man is also on trial, but denies being her biological father.

The pair allegedly had a sexual relationship for more than 10 years. They met when she was almost 30 and he was in his late 40s, living in Britain.

On the first day of the couple's trial in the Auckland District Court yesterday, Crown prosecutor Scott McColgan said that though they were consenting adults, if they had a sexual relationship it was "incestuous".

The accused have interim name suppression.

Mr McColgan said that after the woman tracked the man down, she spent three weeks with him. When she returned to NZ, she split from her husband, then moved back to Britain.

She and the accused man eventually returned to New Zealand and lived in the house where the woman had lived with her husband and children.

Mr McColgan said they appeared to be "besotted with each other". The woman sponsored the man when he applied for residency, telling authorities he was her biological father.

After a complaint was made to police, officers searched their bedroom and found sex toys and pornography.

During a police interview, the man admitted the couple were in a sexual relationship but denied he was her biological father because he claimed the woman's mother was sleeping around about the time she was conceived.

Asked who the father was, he gave two names -including his brother.

Mr McColgan said DNA samples were taken from the men and they were excluded as being the father.

However, DNA samples from the man showed he was one million times more likely to be the father.

Scientists would testify there was strong scientific support the accused were biological father and daughter.

When police spoke to the woman, she denied she and the man were in a relationship but said he was her partner and soulmate in other ways.

The woman's mother told the court her daughter changed "overnight" when the man arrived on the scene.

At her daughter's 30th birthday party, the man told her he wondered what it would be like to have both mother and daughter as the three danced. She was shocked.

A few months later she confronted the woman about the "unnatural" relationship.

The witness said the claims she was sleeping with several men at the time she conceived were "disgusting lies".