“My husband’s glad I kept my rapist’s baby”
When Jennifer Christie fell pregnant after a brutal sex attack, she not only made the courageous decision to keep her child, she also had her husband’s full support
As a mum-of-four married to her childhood sweetheart, Jennifer Christie was blissfully happy.
But, in January 2014, her contented life was shattered when she was subjected to a brutal sexual assault. Beaten and raped by a stranger, she was left with fractured ribs and broken fingers from desperately trying to fight off her attacker.
TRAUMA
Physically and emotionally scarred, just five weeks later Jennifer was hit by a lifechanging discovery – she was pregnant with her rapist’s baby. But, rather than have a termination, as many women understandably would in that position, she and her husband of 22 years, Jeff, 43, made the incredible decision to raise the child together and, in September 2014, she gave birth to her son, Oliver*.
Jennifer, 42, says, “When I saw the positive pregnancy test, I knew without question that I’d keep my baby. After so much trauma, a new life gave Jeff and I something positive to focus on. I felt like I needed to protect this baby. He was a victim, too.”
Jennifer was on a two-week business trip in a small town, a three and a half hour drive from home, when she was raped.
She recalls, “I was half way through the trip and I’d been at the conference where I was working as a sign language interpreter. When I arrived back at my hotel that afternoon, it was snowing, so there were not many people around, and I was flustered – rushing to get inside with my handbag and laptop case and then fumbling with my key card at my room door. I was too distracted to notice the man following me.
“But when I got into my room and turned to close the door, I saw him standing there. He looked young and my first thought was that he was lost. But, suddenly, he punched me in the face. I screamed in agony as he closed the door behind us and pushed me to the floor.
UNCONSCIOUS
“I tried to fight back but, as he forced himself on top of me, pain tore through my body. I remember silently begging to die, then I blacked out. When I eventually drifted into consciousness, I was lying halfway down a flight of stairs in the hotel corridor, naked apart from my bra. A hotel cleaner found me, and called an ambulance.”
Jennifer only has hazy memories of being in hospital. Police took statements and gathered DNA evidence from her body, while a test confirmed she hadn’t contracted an STI. She can’t recall being offered the morning after pill.
She says, “When Jeff arrived at my bedside, we wept together. Two days later, we flew home, but I was too scared to leave the house. When I tried to sleep, I’d see my attacker’s face. Jeff was my rock, but he was hurting too – I’d hear him crying in the shower when he thought I was sleeping.”
To explain her bruises and broken ribs, Jeff and Jennifer told their children, Julia, then 16, Spencer, 14, Mackenzie, 11 and Noah, eight, that she’d been in a car accident. But while police investigated, Jennifer began feeling sick. A month later, she visited her GP, who asked if she could be pregnant.
She explains, “I said no as, after four children, Jeff had undergone a vasectomy.
But then the realisation hit me. I explained I’d been raped, and the doctor did a pregnancy test. When the doctor showed me the positive result, she went white with shock.”
PREGNANCY TEST
Jennifer adds, “She was expecting me to break down but, from the moment I saw the test, I wasn’t afraid. I know many women would be horrified, but I felt this baby was a part of me. For the first time since I’d been raped, I felt like I had some control. It wasn’t my choice to be attacked, but it was my choice to keep the baby.”
Jennifer immediately called Jeff. Remarkably, she didn’t feel nervous about how he’d react. “I just knew he’d support me,” she says. “When I told him I was pregnant, there was no hesitation, he said the baby was a gift. He came to the scans, and carried the pictures in his wallet.”
She adds, “We were excited, but some friends and family were stunned. My mum asked how I’d be able to love a child that was conceived with a monster. What if the baby looked like him? But none of that mattered to us – we loved the baby from the start.”
Oliver was born in September 2014. Jennifer says, “It was only during labour that I felt a shred of doubt. I panicked that I might not be able to love my child. But when Oliver was born, we bonded instantly. He has the same green eyes as me – my rapist didn’t even cross my mind. He was such a happy baby, who loved cuddles with his siblings. Watching Jeff treat him like his biological son made me love him even more, too.”
While Jennifer adored her new son, she was still traumatised by her ordeal. With no evidence, apart from the anonymous DNA found on Jennifer’s body, police had no leads.
Jennifer explains, “I’d often find myself in the supermarket, scanning the faces of other shoppers, thinking, ‘Would I recognise my attacker if I saw him?’ I was constantly on edge and desperate for the police to find him. Eventually, Jeff suggested moving to a new city. It felt like a fresh start.”
TELLING THE TRUTH
In July 2017, the police finally contacted Jennifer to tell her that her rapist had been killed. She explains, “He’d raped and murdered two women after me – the DNA on their bodies matched the DNA on me. But one of the victims’ relatives had stabbed him in revenge. I was horrified for those poor women, but relieved to feel safe at last.”
Jennifer and Jeff told their eldest daughter, Julia, 20, about Oliver’s conception first, before revealing the truth to their younger children last year.
“Julia was shocked,” says Jennifer, who lives with her family in North Carolina, USA. “Telling the boys was difficult, especially when explaining what happened to me. But they already adored Oliver, so we weren’t worried about how it might affect their relationship with him. We’re always happy to answer their questions, and we know there’ll be lots of difficult conversations in the future with Oliver as, one day, we’ll tell him about how he was conceived. “I don’t know my attacker’s real name or where he was from – information that I’m sure Oliver will want to know, but I won’t be able to give. But I’ll make sure he knows that how he was conceived and who his biological father is does not determine who he is as a person. Yes, it’ll be hard, but we’ll be there for him and he will know that – no matter where he came from – we all love him unconditionally.”
For now, Oliver is a joyful, three-year-old who is obsessed with dinosaurs. She says, “People often tell me I’m brave to have kept my rapist’s baby, but he’s not my rapist’s – he’s Jeff’s and he’s mine.”
'We loved our son from the start'
❛ ONE DAY, WE’LL TELL OLIVER HOW HE WAS CONCEIVED & THAT HE’S UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED❜