Woman forced to give daughter to her alleged rapist, pay him child support

A woman in the US has been denied custody of her 16-year-old daughter and asked to pay child support to the man she claims raped and impregnated her when she was a teenager.

Crysta Abelseth, who hails from Louisiana, has claimed that she was 16 years old when 30-year-old John Barnes raped her in 2005.

"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," she told WBRZ.

"They granted him 50/50 custody despite the fact that [the child] was caused by rape," she added. A DNA test had confirmed that he indeed was the father of the child.

The age of consent in Louisiana is 17, and a sexual act is considered illegal below 17 even if there is consent involved. Abelseth claims that she was attacked by Barnes when she agreed to let him escort her home from a Tangipahoa, Louisiana restaurant.

"Instead of bringing me home, he brought me to his house. Once inside, he raped me on his living room couch," she alleged. According to a police report, Abelseth was highly intoxicated on the night of the alleged incident and awoke naked the next day on Barnes' bathroom floor.

She first reported the crime in 2015 stating that she did not how to go about it earlier and that she was not aware of the law. She says that her case was "never assigned to a detective, and nothing was ever investigated."

It was during a session with a trauma counsellor that she was informed of her rights. She had 30 years to report the crime after she turned 18, per the law in Louisiana. The investigation in the case remains open at the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office.

Meanwhile, Barnes has been given full custody of the child and Abelseth is required to pay him child support. The dispute arose after the woman allegedly let her daughter keep a mobile phone, while the father was against it.

He then dragged her to court over the issue, but the woman claims that she never gave her daughter a cell phone. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for next month.