Woman jailed in New Zealand for failing to stop husband raping her daughter

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A woman from New Zealand has been jailed for failing to stop her husband raping her daughter.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was told by the judge that she showed more interest in her husband’s future than her daughter’s and did not “get it”, according to The New Zealand Herald.

She was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

“You knew full well something was going on," Judge Geoff Rea said, adding that the woman must have appreciated the girl’s predicament would become "much more serious”.

She was reportedly sending the husband – who is currently serving his own jail term for multiple sexual violations of the girl since she was nine years old – NZ$40 (£20) per week.

The woman, from Napier, a coastal city on the country's North Island, had continually denied knowledge of what her husband was doing, and claimed to have "robustly" challenged both her husband and the girl on what was happening, the judge said.

He also rejected the woman’s claims of remorse, which were made on her behalf by her defence lawyer.

"You show no interest in protecting your daughter into the future. Your concerns are quite clearly with the perpetrator rather than the victim,” the judge said.

The woman also reportedly applied pressure close to "blackmail" to family members in a bid to obtain positive character references and be placed under house arrest rather than sent to jail.

However, the judge said house arrest was not an appropriate punishment for the crime.