A North Carolina courtroom heard about how a woman let her husband sexually abuse and rape a young girl for seven years, get the victim pregnant, and then continue to rape her even after she gave birth to his child at 15.

Speaking at the Forsyth Superior Court, prosecutors described the horrors Brandon Irving Helms, 34, and his wife Marcy Lynn Helms, 39, both of Winston-Salem, subjected the victim and several other children to over a period that spanned close to a decade.

Assistant District Attorney Pansy Glanton revealed that Helms had started sexually abusing the victim when she was just eight years old and raping her when she was 13. She said the girl was in labor for 21.5 days and delivered her child on a table. Helms did not seek medical attention for her after the birth and continued to rape her.

Assistant District Attorney Kia Chavious said Helms had told his wife he wanted the girl to be his "concubine" and forced to call him lord, adding that he said he raped her in several different houses, and also in cars.

The court heard that, after the couple became homeless, the girl and several other children had been forced to live in an abandoned residence that was boarded up and had running water. Social workers and police testified that the house smelled of human feces and that it had unsteady floors.

Chavious said Helms had stolen the teen's childhood and innocence and would have kept raping her if not for the social workers' timely visit. He said the defendant had taken everything from the victim and the other children, "He gave all of them a life sentence."

Helms entered an Alford plea — which means he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him at a trial — to more than 20 charges, including statutory rape of a child younger than 15 and felony child abuse involving a sexual act.

Judge David Hall subsequently sentenced him to 88 years and four months to 136 years in prison, telling him that he would die in a cell. He added that if ever Helms got out, he would have to register as a sex offender for life.

Marcy Helms had previously pleaded guilty to charges based on the allegation that she knew her husband was sexually abusing the girl and did nothing to stop it. She was jailed for up to 31 years and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 30 years.

The victim, now 17, was sitting behind the prosecutors during the hearing, was lauded by Hall and described as a "remarkable young woman." She and her child are now in foster care.

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