There have been several cases of incest making headlines lately. Last month, I covered a case in Germany in which a constitutional court rejected an appeal by a man—who fathered four children with his sister—who wished to overturn the country's ban on incest. Then, last week, Gary C. King covered an incest case out of England, regarding twins who married unknowingly, only to find out later that they were committing incest. Today, I bring you yet another unusual case, this time from Australia, that involves a father and his adult daughter who recently pled guilty to charges relating to a consensual love affair that resulted in the birth of two children, one of whom died shortly after birth.
According to court documents, John Earnest Deaves, 61, and his daughter, Jennifer Anne Deaves, 39, began their incestuous relationship roughly eight years ago. The two had little contact before that, as Jennifer's mother, Joan, divorced John following his arrest and imprisonment on charges stemming from an armed robbery he committed when Jennifer was a toddler. When father and daughter became reacquainted in 2000, John was living with his third wife, Dorothy, and their child. Jennifer was also married and was living with her husband and two children, now aged 9 and 14, in Sydney, New South Wales.
Both John and Jennifer's marriages were strained, and shortly after their reunion, Jennifer moved in with John so she could reassess her marriage. During her stay at her father's house, the couple began to feel an attraction to each other but initially brushed it off. However, later that year, they went on a vacation together, and upon their return, they ended both of their marriages and commenced living together as a couple.
"When they got back here, he informed me it was the best sex he ever had," John's ex-wife, Dorothy, told News.com.au, adding, "If that doesn't degrade you, I don't know what does. It was my second marriage, and you feel like you get a very poor opinion of yourself."
