A man has been jailed after forcing his pregnant teenage daughter to marry the man who raped her.
The man, from Idaho, took his 14-year-old daughter and her attacker more than 1,000 miles to Missouri where it is legal for minors to marry with parental consent “in special circumstances”, such as being pregnant.
The father pleaded guilty to injury to a child last week and was given a suspended prison sentence of four years.
He has now been imprisoned for 120 days in a county jail, after which he will undergo three years of supervised probation. His name is being withheld to protect the identity of his daughter.
The Associated Press reports that the 24-year-old became acquainted with the 14-year-old because their families worked together. The sexual contact occurred in 2015, and the girl’s pregnancy was discovered after she was taken to the doctor for stomach pains.
A court heard that the girl’s father believed a man should marry a girl if he impregnated her.
"I love my daughter very much and I would never do anything to intentionally harm her or put her in harm’s way,” the father said in court, according to KPLR.
"I made the wrong decision, and I made that decision in duress."
Gregory Moeller, sentencing judge, told him: “While you sit in jail, you will sit and think about the 120 days your daughter was in a vile farce of a marriage to a rapist because of you.”
The 24-year-old was charged with rape in September last year and sentenced in April 2016 to 15 years in prison.
