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29 March 2024

Mother forced girl, 14, to get pregnant

Published

UK: An American woman is in a United Kingdom prison after repeatedly forcing her 14-year-old daughter to inseminate herself with donor sperm, because the mother wanted another baby and could not conceive or adopt more children.

After a miscarriage at 14, the girl had a baby at 17, after regularly inseminating herself with sperm her mother purchased on the Internet, according to a report in The Guardian. The girl a virgin was apparently too scared to refuse her adoptive “domineering” mother’s request.

The mother has not been identified to protect the daughter and grandchild.

Over a two-year period, the daughter had to inseminate herself seven times, while alone in her room at home, using syringes of semen. In hopes of getting a girl, the mother forced her daughter to follow a special diet and use painful acidic douches containing vinegar or lemon and lime juice, in the belief it could affect the baby’s gender.

When she became pregnant at 16, the daughter told health workers a concocted story about spending the night with a boy who abandoned her and was now abroad. The girl also told health professionals she wanted her mother to raise the child.

The mother had already adopted three children as infants from other countries, two when she was married, and one as a single, divorced parent. A health condition prevented her from giving birth on her own so she had undergone elective sterilization.

When she had trouble adopting a fourth child, she became distraught and turned to her adopted daughter to provide her with another baby, according to court documents.

The crime was discovered in July 2011 when the girl gave birth. Midwives were alarmed at the “pushy and insensitive” mother, who didn’t want her daughter to breast-feed the baby boy, so they would not get attached. The midwives called in child protection services when the mother tried to remove the baby from the hospital.

Details of the case were kept secret and not reported until this week. The mother is serving a five-year prison sentence on child cruelty charges. 

High court family judge Peter Jackson described "an abiding sense of disbelief that a parent could behave in such a wicked and selfish way toward a vulnerable child,” the Guardian reported.

The mother had isolated the family, home-schooling her children. The adoptive father of the older kids did not know where they lived and had not seen them for a decade.

Court reports reveal the daughter "allowed her body to be used by her mother because she loves her," and though she did not want to take part, she told interviewers she was not "brave enough" to refuse her mother.

The daughter - who had no friends her age  later told investigators she was shocked when her mother first asked her but also thought, "if I do this … maybe she will love me more.” (AP)

App helps wealthy travelers hitch rides on private jets

Wealthy travelers wanting to fly in style can book empty seats on private planes with a new app for a jet-sharing service.

Although there are dozens of apps for buying seats on commercial flights, BlackJet is a new iPhone app that connects travelers with private jets that have extra room on their planes.

Flights are shared with from two to 14 other passengers, and the price is on par with a premium fare on a commercial airline, according to the San Francisco-based company.

"We had the idea to use the existing aircraft out there and to leverage the excess capacity," said BlackJet chief executive Dean Rotchin.

Passengers who are members of the service and pay an annual fee of $2,500 can book a seat on any of 4,000 airplanes the company has access to through partnerships. They can also buy add-on services such as meals and ground transportation.

The service is geared primarily towards business travelers looking for convenience, time-savings and reliability, according to Rotchin.

Travelers using the app can buy a seat in advance but they will not get a precise itinerary until the day before the flight.

"On the day of travel the experience is completely different than at the major airports. You're basically driving right up to the plane, getting on the airplane, and within 15 minutes the airplane is leaving," he said.

Flights booked with the app cost between $900 for a trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to $3,500 for a coast-to-coast flight.

The company offers flights from San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and South Florida, and plans to expand service to Chicago, Washington, Boston, Dallas and Seattle.

Since the web app was launched in October, more than 3,000 flights have been booked through it, the company said.

Another app called PrivateFly, which is available worldwide for iPhone, iPad and Android, allows jet-setters and companies to book an entire private jet. (Reuters)

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