A man and woman had an incestuous relationship after being estranged for most of their lives, a Dunedin court has heard.
This week the man and the woman – both of whom have name suppression – pleaded guilty to three counts of incest before the Dunedin District Court.
Court documents detailed how the pair initially connected on a trip to the North Island when the woman was a teenager but they lost contact again until 2020.
After a meeting in Dunedin, the woman travelled to Christchurch where she stayed with the man and his partner for several days.
“Their time together allowed them to quickly form a close bond, which progressed to being in a sexual relationship,” a police summary said.
The pair subsequently exchanged thousands of messages “declaring their love for each other” and discussing their intimacy in explicit detail.
In January, the male defendant visited the woman three times over six days, during which the sexual contact took place.
The court heard after the visits the duo exchanged intimate photos through social media and described their sexual fantasies for their coming meetings.
Their forbidden relationship was discovered when the woman’s partner returned home from a night shift and became suspicious of the sudden closeness between them.
When he checked her phone, he found the graphic messages, which prompted a confrontation.
“In response she asked him not to tell anyone about the relationship as she did not wish to go to jail,” the summary of facts said.
When the woman was approached by police she admitted the crimes and stressed it had been consensual.
The woman told officers she was mentally unwell at the time.
Her counsel Sarah Saunderson-Warner today requested no convictions be entered against her client’s name.
A discharge without conviction would be sought at her sentencing in February, she said.
Both defendants were remanded on bail and will be sentenced on different dates that month.
