Jessica Stallings, 32, has publicly identified herself in interviews to describe being raped by her uncle Lenion Richard Barnett, who she says started ‘climbing into her bed’ when she was 12 and he was 19 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Over the next seven years, Barnett, who is her mother’s half-brother, impregnated her four times.
Her first pregnancy, when she was just 14, ended in miscarriage.
When she was 16, she gave birth to their son. At 18, she had another child who died. Aged 19, she had their last child, another boy.
Sickeningly, her family forced her to marry him but the marriage was annulled by a court which deemed it illegal because they are related.
 I’ve spent my entire life scared to death of my rapist, and now, I’m fighting him for custody of my children’ – Jessica Stallings said.
Despite that and the fact that DNA testing proves he is the children’s father, the uncle has never been arrested or convicted of sex crimes.
Stallings ran away with the children.
But in 2015, Barnett was released from prison on unrelated drug charges.
He sought custody of the children upon his release.
To protect them, Stallings reported the rapes for the first time but a grand jury declined to prosecute and their reason for the decision is sealed along with the case files.
Now, he is demanding access to the two boys he fathered and he has been allowed to.
In an interview she gave The Washington Post last month, Stallings said ‘It’s sickening. I’ve spent my entire life scared to death of my rapist, and now, I’m fighting him for custody of my children’.
‘I had so much shame. I spent my entire childhood pregnant and terrified he was going to kill me,’ she added.
Stallings said she lost faith in the courts a ‘long time ago’ but that others ought to be aware of the worrying rules.
‘I’ve decided I won’t be silenced. I want other women in Alabama to know that their rapist may be in their lives — maybe forever — if this law isn’t passed.’ she said.

Because Alabama is one of the few states in the country which does not strip rapists of their rights, and because he has never been found guilty of raping her, the children’s mother has been told she must comply or face jail herself.
Over Christmas, she had to see him to let him spend three days with the boys.
Stallings said she has chosen to speak out in light of the state’s recently-passed abortion laws which makes it illegal for women to seek an abortion, even if they have been raped, unless it will endanger their life to carry the child.
She supports the law and does not regret having the two boys, saying that every life is equal despite how the child was conceived.
However, she believes states must enforce a law to protect rape victims once the babies are born, like hers.
‘If we’re going to ban abortions, we need laws in place for rape victims.
‘We’re not encouraging them to go through with their pregnancies if we’re telling them they have to be constantly bound to their rapist because they conceived,’ she said.