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A man held his step-daughter captive for nearly 20 years, subjecting her to horrifying sexual abuse and violence, after 'marrying' her in the back of a van when she was just 12, it is alleged.

Henri Michele Piette has been arrested in Mexico after Rosalynn Michelle McGinnis escaped from his home with her children.

The 62-year-old now faces charges including first-degree rape.

In a harrowing interview with People magazine, McGinnis, now 33, said that she was raped, stabbed, shot and regularly beaten with a baseball bat while she was trapped at his home.

She said: “I knew that if I didn’t get out of there I’d either go insane or I would end up dying and leaving my kids with that man.”

Court papers state that Piette abducted McGinnis from an Oklahoma school in January 1997.

(Image: PeopleTV/Youtube)

He had been in a relationship with the girl's mother, but this ended amid allegations of violence.

McGinnis had been living with her mother in a women's shelter when she was abducted, and it is alleged that she was first raped at the age of 11 or 12.

After she was abducted, one of Piette's sons oversaw a marriage ceremony in the back of a van, it is alleged, and McGinnis was told she was married to the rapist.

Now back in the US, having been taken to Mexico after she was kidnapped, McGinnis told People: "I want the world to know. I want him to be stopped and I want justice to be served."

She was sexually assaulted several times each day, prosecutors state.

Piette and his captive regularly moved around the US and Mexico, frequently changing their names in order to evade capture.

When she was finally able to escape, she took eight of her children with her. A ninth, a boy, had previously run away, but has since been reunited with his mother.

The FBI says Piette has 'deep ties' to Mexican criminal organisations, News OK reports.

She escaped shortly after having gall bladder surgery, and said her cruel captor forced her to carry on doing chores.

McGinnis was able to take a taxi to Oaxaca City in Mexico, where she contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who directed her to the US Embassy.