AN EVIL stepfather was found guilty of raping his stepdaughter for decades and impregnating her nine times – in a case bearing a chilling resemblance to Josef Fritzl. Henri Michelle Piette, 63, began sexually abusing Rosalyn McGinnis when she was 10. Piette “married” Rosalyn in the back of a wagon in Wagoner, Oklahoma when she […]
AN EVIL stepfather was found guilty of raping his stepdaughter for decades and impregnating her nine times – in a case bearing a chilling resemblance to Josef Fritzl.
Henri Michelle Piette, 63, began sexually abusing Rosalyn McGinnis when she was 10.
Piette “married” Rosalyn in the back of a wagon in Wagoner, Oklahoma when she was 11 and his 15-year-old son officiated the wedding, according to the FBI.
He has been convicted of what prosecutors describe as a “reign of terror”.
The case bares similarities to that of rapist Fritzl, who imprisoned his own daughter in a sex dungeon in Austria and fathered seven kids with her over a 24 year period.
Rosalyn waived her anonymity to speak about the campaign of abuse against her.
She said her mum knew about the abuse and left Piette, but he kidnapped her in January 1997 from her school.
The FBI said: “After being introduced to Piette’s other children as their new mother, they began traveling to numerous locations throughout the United States and abroad including Texas, Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.”
Piette changed their names and made Rosalyn cut and dye her hair.
He even went as far as coming back to Oklahoma and forcing her to “mail letters just so people would believe” she was still living in the state as authorities were searching for hear.
The now 34-year-old told KSHB she was sexually abused and became pregnant at aged 13.
However, she said she suffered a miscarriage and Piette forced her to flush the fetus down the toilet.
She said: “I was scared, and I was so confused and didn’t even know what was happening.
“Looking back on what happened to me I don’t even know how any human can do that to a child — what he did to me.”
Piette eventually moved Rosalyn to Mexico after going from hotel to hotel.
She gave birth to her first child when she was 15 in the back of a van.
Rosalyn said Piette spent all the money on drugs and alcohol, forcing to beg on the streets.
Piette unleashed his tirade of abuse by beating her with an assault rifle, baseball bat and beer bottles.
She said: “He picked up a stainless steel frying pan and tried to hit me in the stomach. I put my arm in front of it and it cut me all the way to the bone.”
Piette has maintained his innocence by telling Fox23: “Most of it are lies.
“99 percent are lies….I’m telling the truth.
“I never raped any children. I made love to my wife. We were married.”
He also bizarrely claimed his children were in the Mexican mafia.
Piette continued: “[My children] are involved in the [Mexican] mafia, and they don’t like me.”
In 1984, Fritzl lured his 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth into his cellar where he drugged and raped her repeatedly.
After telling his own wife that Elisabeth had run away and joined a cult, Fritzl managed to keep his daughter prisoner in the soundproof basement for 24 years.
Josef fathered seven children with his own child in the small cellar where he installed cramped living quarters including a kitchen and bathroom.
While one of the children died shortly after birth, and was incinerated by Fritzl, three of the other kids were brought upstairs to live with him and his wife Rosemarie.
In March 2009, Fritzl was jailed for life after pleading guilty to murder by negligence over the death of the baby he cremated.
The other charges included enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment.
It wasn’t until 2016 – 19 years after Rosalyn was kidnapped – when met Lisa and Ian, a married couple, while living in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Rosalyn introduced herself as Stephanie and Piette as Bill – one of the many aliases they assumed over the years.
The couple had made friends with Rosalyn and her eight children, but immediately began to suspect something was wrong when Piette accidentally revealed he was 62.
Lisa said: “You had eight children living in three cubicles that were little more than walk-in closet size.
“(They) were all skinny as rakes. And the children said that he (Piette) said he didn’t love any of them.
“We went home, and I said, ‘Ian (McGinnis is) 32 years old.
“’Her oldest kid would be turning — I think at that point he was to be turning 17 — and I said, ’That’s wrong.’
“You take 17 from 32 that’s 15. He’s 62.”
Lisa called Rosalyn and said: “We know there’s something wrong. If you can get your husband either in jail or in rehab jail, which is something they do with drug addicts and alcoholics, we’ll help you.
“And at that point, Bill came home and we hung up. And that’s all I ever said.”
Shortly after, Rosalyn showed up to Lisa and Ian’s home with her children.
The family was brought back to the US with the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Piette was on the run, but was arrested shortly after September 2017 when he tried to enter the US.
He was convicted yesterday and faces life in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping and travelling with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.
Prosecutor Brian Kuester said: “The victim endured two decades of horrific abuse by the defendant.
“Her courage led her to escape and rescue her children and allowed investigators and prosecutors to seek justice on her behalf. Ultimately her courage ended the defendant’s reign of terror.”
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