From NYpost.com…
A Louisiana judge gave an accused rapist custody of the child conceived from the 2005 attack and eventually ordered his underage victim to pay child support, a report said.
Crysta Abelseth told WBRZ that she was raped at 16 years old when a man nearly twice her age promised to give her a ride home from a local restaurant after a night out with friends.
“Instead of bringing me home, he brought me to his house,” Abelseth said about John Barnes, who was 30 years old at the time. “Once inside, he raped me on his living room couch.”
The teen became pregnant and had a daughter, who is now a teenager herself, the station said.
“Everyone assumed it [the pregnancy] was from a boyfriend, and I let them believe that,” Abelseth told the outlet.
Barnes reportedly came back into the picture five years later when he found out the child might be his.
WBRZ
“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 said, explaining that a DNA test proved with near certainty that he was the father.
“They granted him 50/50 custody despite the fact that [the child] was caused by rape.”
Abelseth filed rape charges against Barnes in 2015 after she found out it was within Louisiana’s statute of limitations, the station reported.
“I thought if I didn’t do it the next day, there was nothing I could do about it,” Abelseth reportedly said. “I went to a trauma counselor, and he said, ‘No, you have 30 years after you turn 18.’”
The case was still open with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, and no charges had been filed, according to the station.
“It was never assigned to a detective, and nothing was ever investigated,” Abelseth said.
