In Idaho, as part of a plea agreement, an incest charge was dropped against a rapist. It would be better if the law was wiped off the books, but at least it wasn’t used in a situation where the real problem was rape, not the consanguineous nature of the activity.
According to this article, Matthew J. Honeycutt pled guilty to raping his adult biological daughter.
Although Honeycutt is the woman’s biological father, she had had no contact with him from the age of 1 until reuniting with him approximately a year before the incident.
The woman, who lived in the upstairs portion of Honeycutt’s home, describing how she had asked him to help her move furniture and then assumed he had gone back downstairs. She said as she prepared for bed, Honeycutt came into her room and pinned her to the bed and sexually assaulted her.
“I’m scared that if he does get out (of prison) ... he’ll be able to do this to me again,” she said.
Child abuse, and in this case, rape of an adult, should already be prosecuted as serious crimes. No harmful incest happens that is not also child abuse or sexual assault/rape. We don’t need incest laws, which can interfere with consensual sex. Incest laws are barriers to reaching marriage equality.
It is sad that this woman reunited with her biological parent, only to have that parent commit a violent crime against her. It is too bad her experience couldn’t have been more like that of Matthew or Melissa, in which reuniting with their biological parent ended up being better than they could have imagmined.
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