A couple in the US have used the Old Testament to justify their prolonged abuse of a teenage girl.
Rob and Marie Johnson – who have four sons of their own – took in the young girl after her mother died. She was just 13 years old at the time.
It’s believed the couple used the teenager as a sex slave for five years before she managed to escape their home in Port St Lucie, Florida.
Giving evidence the girl said she was sexually and physically abused within a week of living with the Johnson’s. She was forced to call Rob Johnson her ‘master’ and said Marie would beat her if she refused to participate in sex.
Sickeningly, the girl was read passages from the Old Testament which Rob Johnson believed justified the way she was treated.
The extreme lengths the sick couple went to to keep the girl a secret were also revealed in court, including keeping her inside and teaching her statements that she would repeat to the police if they were ever caught.
Both Rob and Marie Johnson have been charged with felony sexual assault and have been released on bail, awaiting trial.
It’s reported that the girl only managed to escape when her grandmother managed to get her a plane ticket to Ohio, although it’s still unclear how she managed to do this.
Speaking about their crime, police officers said it was “one of the most heinous crimes we’ve seen sexually for a long time”.