A New Zealand woman who went overseas to meet her long-lost father is now on trial accused of incest.
The man is also on trial, but denies being her biological father.
The pair allegedly had a sexual relationship for more than 10 years.
They met when she was almost 30 and he was in his late 40s and living in Britain.
On the first day of the couple's trial at the Auckland District Court on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Scott McColgan said, though they were consenting adults, if they had a sexual relationship it was “incestuous”.
The accused have interim name suppression.
He said after she tracked the man down she spent three weeks with him. When she returned to New Zealand she split with her husband then moved back to Britain.
She and the accused man ventually returned to New Zealand and lived in the house where the woman had lived with her husband and children.
McColgan said they appeared to be “besotted with each other”.
The woman sponsored him when he applied for residency, telling authorities he was her biological father.
After a complaint was made to police, officers searched their bedroom and found sex toys and pornography.
During a police interview, the man admitted the couple were in a sexual relationship but denied he was her biological father because he claimed the woman's mother was sleeping around about the time she was conceived.
Asked who the father was, he gave two names -including his own brother. McColgan said DNA samples were taken from the men and they were excluded as being her father.
However, DNA samples from the man showed he was one million times more likely to be the father.
Scientists would testify there was strong scientific support they were biological father and daughter.
When the woman was spoken to by police she denied they were in a relationship but said he was her partner and soul mate in other ways.
The woman's mother told the court her daughter changed “overnight” when the man arrived on the scene.
At her daughter's 30th birthday party the man allegedly told her he wondered what it would be like to have both mother and daughter as the three danced. She was shocked by the comment.
A few months later she confronted the woman about the “unnatural” relationship. -
The New Zealand Herald