The woman convicted of helping her husband sexually assault their children says she repeatedly surrendered to torture to spare her life and the lives of her kids.
“I just wanted my children to live,” she said from jail Thursday. “They’re living now; they’re not dead.”
A jury found that the woman helped her husband carry out the sexual abuse of her son and their daughter by holding them down so he could molest them.
The Denver Post is withholding the names of the family to protect the children’s identity.
“After many, many nights and months of torture and beatings, he made me watch him rape my son,” she said.
Her son was 5 when his stepfather began abusing him. He is now 18. Their daughter was 7 when the molestation began. She is now 11.
“You woke up; you ate; you slept; you did what he said. There was consequences if you didn’t,” she said.
The woman said her husband chained her to a bed, forced her to drink urine and raped her. She said she was not allowed to talk to her family or use the phone.
“When he made me stop seeing my family, he said nobody would ever know if I died,” she said.
The 40-year-old mother is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 24.
Her 60-year-old husband faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty on two counts of sexual assault on a child.
“The world is a safer place because that guy is behind bars,” she said.
The victimized daughter and another daughter are now in foster care, where prosecutors say they are doing well. The son is living with a stepbrother.
