Why A Mother Let Her Boyfriend Sexually Assault And Impregnate Her 10-Year-Old Daughter
His girlfriend admitted she let him sexually assault her daughter.
Grant County Jail The girlfriend of convicted pedophile Nicholas Deon Thrash admitted on Tuesday that she allowed him to sexually assault her 10-year-old daughter, who got pregnant as a result.
Jennifer Hand, 33, pleaded guilty to charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, neglect of a dependent, aiding child molesting and assisting a criminal, The Chronicle-Tribune of Marion, Indiana reported. She accepted a sentence of 25 years in prison for the felonies, which kept her from going to trial.
She is required to serve 20 years incarcerated and the remaining five on supervised probation. Hand is not allowed to have any contact with her daughter until a counselor "deems it appropriate" as a result of the plea.
Deputy Grant County Prosecutor Lisa Glancy said she was relieved Hand pleaded guilty for the sake of the victim.
"We were certainly ready to go to trial in a few weeks, but the emotional and psychological toll would have been significantly more (for this trial) than the Thrash trial," Glancy said.
Last week Hand's boyfriend, Thrash, 34, was sentenced to 160 years for 10 counts of child molesting and will serve a minimum of 132 years. He was found guilty in late August of sexually assaulting and impregnating Hand's daughter.
Hand admitted that her daughter told her of Thrash's sexual abuse but did not report her him or the fact that her daughter was pregnant. The girl was the one to tell police Thrash had sexually assaulted her at least 15 times, and Hand continued to let Thrash live with them despite an ongoing criminal investigation into his abuse, The Chronicle-Tribune reported.
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A probable cause report stated that Thrash began making the girl have sex with him when she was 8 years old. She testified that she was afraid of Thrash and that he told her not to tell anyone he was making her perform sexual acts.
The victim, who is now 12 and in foster care, got pregnant when she was 10. She gave birth to a baby boy at 11, who was then put up for adoption.
During Thrash's trial, Hand took the girl to get an abortion when she was five months pregnant but were unable to go through with the procedure because they did not have the victim's original birth certificate, according to the 10-year-old's testimony. They then went to a mobile pregnancy crisis center where volunteer Anita Moody performed an ultrasound.
According to Moody's testimony, she reported the young girl's pregnancy to her supervisor and the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Her mother told her to say a classmate got her pregnant, Fox 59 reported. When a Grant County DCS worker interviewed the girl, she said a classmate got her pregnant but later admitted Thrash had sexually abused her many times.
Thrash and Hand were arrested in late May following an investigation into the girl's claims and her reported pregnancy.
"She's doing better. That's all that we can hope for right now. She's at a really good place," Glancy said.
Sarah Gangraw has a degree in journalism and writes about all things news, entertainment and true crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.