A Melbourne mother helped her nephew rape her own 12-year-old daughter, the court has heard. The mum, who was in a sexual relationship with her adult nephew, held her child down so she could get a better view of the rape.

The nephew, 42, pleaded guilty to persistent sexual abuse of a child under 16 in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday, while the woman, 55, pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child and an indecent act with a child. None of the parties can be named for legal reasons.

That the mother and the nephew have apparently started their relationship in 2011 when the woman’s marriage fell apart. The nephew let his aunt and his cousin live in one of his houses then.

News.com.au reports that on one occasion in 2011, when the girl was only 12, the mother and the nephew were having sex when the nephew started touching the daughter. The girl was raped for the first time by the man shortly after the incident.

Instead of stopping the offending, the mother even helped her nephew rape her daughter.

“The girl is crying and it’s hurting while the virginity is broken, and (the mother) holds the leg so she can see what’s happening,” prosecutor Michael Hennessy told the court.

The daughter was repeatedly raped until 2014 when she was 15. The mother was apparently not involved again, and the rape usually happened when the girl was alone in the house. The abuse only stopped once the man was arrested after she told one of her older siblings about the rapes.

The man was bailed while the mother remained on custody since March after breaking her bail conditions and contacting her daughter numerous times.

For his part, the man’s defence claimed he has expressed remorse for his crime. Judge Claire Quin wasn’t buying it, though, saying, “Reading the whole tenor of it, I don’t see it.”

The court continues on Friday.

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