Sex with adult stepdaughter still incest, rules US court

OHIO: Ohio's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a state law barring incest applied even when the victim was the perpetrator's willing 22-year-old stepdaughter.

Attorneys appealing a man's 120-day sentence said the sex was consensual and argued the law was designed to protect children, not adults. The court disagreed. "The plain language (in the law) clearly prohibits sexual conduct with one's stepchild while the stepparent-stepchild relationship exists. It makes no exception for consent of the stepchild or the stepchild's age,"

judge Judith Lanzinger wrote. If the man had divorced his wife and was no longer the daughter's stepfather, the statute would not apply, she added. Defence lawyers said they might appeal. This case in the US comes amidst a pair of siblings, who have had four children together, challenging Germany's laws banning incest.

The story of Patrick Stuebing and Susan Karolewski has taken the whole of Europe by storm. Separated by adoption in their native East Germany, the siblings met for the first time in 2000 when Patrick tracked down his birth mother and the younger sister he had never met. For the past seven years, brother and sister have been lovers. In that time they have had four children together.