By Matt Bachl
ninemsn
Have your say on this extraordinary story below.
An ex-wife of the South Australian man who had a baby with his daughter has rubbished claims the pair had almost no contact for 30 years.
Dorothy Deaves told ninemsn John and Jenny Deaves, who have now had two babies together, lived under the same roof when Jenny was a 15-year-old girl.
John and Jenny claimed in an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes that they began a sexual relationship after Jenny tracked down the father she had never known.
But Jenny attended Dorothy and her father John's wedding reception in 1984 and stayed with them for a week, Ms Deaves claims.
The 69-year-old said Jenny stayed with them four times during their marriage, which collapsed after the father-daughter duo took a trip together to Dubbo in 2000.
Dorothy said both father and daughter broke up with their marriage partners after the Dubbo visit.
"I'm devastated — he has hurt me terribly," she said.
"It was hard to face for a long time.
"It's one of those things everyone's so upset about."
John and Jenny Deaves were found guilty last month of a single charge of performing an act of incest with the other.
Court documents show that the first child the pair conceived in 2001 died soon after being born from a congenital disease. They now have an apparently healthy nine-month-old baby girl.
The sentencing remarks show the pair were charged with two counts of incest in 2007 after police were tipped off about their relationship following an investigation by the Department for Families and Communities South Australia.
The pair were initially bailed on the condition that Mr Deaves have no contact with Ms Deaves or their child — a condition the judge said drove Mr Deaves to attempt suicide twice.
Judge Millsteed described the incestuous relationship as "unacceptable" but not one where a father “violated his daughter and used his position of authority to take advantage of her powerlessness".
The judge said he took into account the consensual nature of the relationship and the fact it didn't involve exploitation when recording a conviction.
The pair were placed on a three-year $500 good behaviour bond, with the condition they don't have a sexual relationship.
Mr Deaves told
60 Minutes sex with his daughter was "fantastic" even though he initially thought it was wrong.
"Emotions take over, as people no doubt realise, there are times during your life where emotions do rule the heart, it rules the head," he said.
"I knew it was illegal, of course I knew it was illegal but you know, so what."
The two reunited 30 years after Mr Deaves — who was once jailed for armed robbery — separated from his daughter's mother.
Ms Deaves said soon after meeting her father again, she began to see him as a man first and a father second.
"I was looking at him, sort of going, oh, he's not too bad," she said.
"Like you might look at a man across the bar at a nightclub."
South Australian police refused to comment on reports the pair were being monitored.
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