A 51-year-old Havre de Grace man, who acknowledged fathering his stepdaughter's three children, was convicted in Harford Circuit Court Friday of sexual child abuse and perverted sexual practices.
Judge Cypert O. Whitfill ordered a presentence investigation of the defendant, Richard Lindon Haney, of the 200 block of Wilson St., and revoked his $10,000 bond pending sentencing Jan. 26.
The victim, now 37, testified that Haney began abusing her when she was 9 years old, after he had married her mother in New Jersey in 1966.
The victim's first child was born nine months to the day after Haney began a Christmas Eve tradition in 1973 of having sex with her, the victim said.
Haney's three-day trial focused on a narrower time frame -- from the date the family moved from New Jersey to Conowingo Road in Hickory until the victim was 18 years old.
Trial evidence showed that the family moved to Maryland Aug. 4, 1973, about a month after the victim's 16th birthday.
The victim said that her stepfather at first fondled her and that his sexual abuse progressed to oral sex. She said Haney had sexual relations with her for the first time about 1968, when she was 11.
Sgt. Jordan Watts of the Harford Sheriff's Criminal Investigation Division, testified that Haney cooperated with authorities and acknowledged that his stepdaughter's three children, born in 1974, 1976 and 1978, were his.
Haney kept the children's birth certificates in a safe and gave them to him, Sergeant Watts said. The birth certificates listed Haney as the father of the victim's three children.
The stepdaughter testified that she and Haney were left alone at home Christmas Eve, 1973, when her mother and other family members went to New Jersey to visit relatives.
"We decorated the tree -- the younger kids always thought Santa decorated our tree on Christmas Eve -- and we had sex," the victim said.
Sergeant Watts testified that Haney said the victim's mother never knew about the abuse. Haney's relationship with the victim continued until she moved out of the house in 1984, at the age of 27. That year, the victim's mother divorced Haney. Haney faces up to 15 years in prison on the sexual abuse count and up to 10 years on the perverted sex acts count.