An Idaho father has been jailed after forcing his 14-year-old daughter to marry the rapist who impregnated her. Keith Strawn drove his daughter across state from Idaho to Missouri to marry the 24-year-old man who is now serving a 15-year prison sentence for her rape.
Strawn was sentenced to 120 days in jail for one felony injury to a child charge. He was also given a four-year suspended sentence and fined $3,000 (£2,080).
Rapist Adam Seaton first met Strawn’s daughter as the two families went into business together. Seaton began taking advantage of the teenager while she was drunk and the girl’s pregnancy was discovered when she began suffering stomach pains.
Seaton admitted the rape and the girl later suffered a miscarriage but not before Strawn had taken his teenage daughter to Missouri to marry Seaton. Furthermore Strawn allowed Seaton to live with his daughter and planned their marriage.
A court heard Strawn justified his actions by saying: “If you get them pregnant then you marry them,” he told District Judge Greg Moeller during the hearing according to the Daily Mail. Moeller said in response: “While you spend those 120 days in jail, perhaps you will think about the 120 days your daughter was in a vile farce of a marriage to a rapist”.
Strawn’s defence attorney, Douglas Knutson, said that the marriage “might have been a religious motivation”. Knutson said: “The victim told me herself that her father asked her several times during the trip to Missouri, and even the day of the marriage, if it was something she wanted to do”.
During Seaton’s trial the rapist claimed he did not know his actions were wrong, that the rape was an accident, that no one was hurt, and that he had made a mistake whilst claiming the victim was over affectionate.
Unimpressed Judge Moeller said that the attacks happened numerous times and she was “clearly groomed”. “It suggests you are completely unaccountable for your actions. Attempting to now present yourself as some kind of hero for trying to protect a pregnant teenager by marrying her yourself — I completely reject that as an explanation,” Moeller said.
Strawn said during the hearing: “I love my daughter very much and I would never do anything to intentionally harm her or put her in harm’s way. I made the wrong decision, and I made that decision in duress.”
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