Man arrested over a woman's claims she was conceived by rape

A man has been arrested over a woman’s claims she was conceived by rape, police have said.

The complainant said she discovered her mother was only 13 when she was conceived after obtaining her own adoption files – her own existence was evidence a crime had been committed. She has sought a DNA test to prove the identity of her biological father.

On Tuesday, West Midlands police confirmed a man had been arrested on suspicion of rape. “A 73-year old man was re-arrested and interviewed last week following further evidence coming to light He was released on bail. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advice will now be sought.”

The force had previously said “the law does not recognise her as a victim in these circumstances” and that it had liaised closely with the CPS over the allegation but prosecutors would not support a prosecution.

The complainant, who was adopted at seven months old in the 1970s, gained access to her adoption files at 18. Speaking to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, she said she welcomed the recent arrest and wants the definition of a victim to be reviewed to include people conceived by rape.

“I’m still determined to get things changed, so that others don’t go through what I’ve been through,” she added.

She has previously described herself as a “walking crime scene” on the same show. “I’d always thought that it was so wrong that my birth father was never prosecuted,” she said last August.

“It was then that I thought: ‘I’ve got DNA evidence, because I am DNA evidence. I’m a walking crime scene’.”

She added that she wanted her birth father to be held accountable. “I wanted justice for my mum. I wanted justice for me. The ramifications of what he chose to do have shaped my entire life … and he’s been able to get away with it and just live his life.”

Speaking at the time, the Labour MP Jess Phillips said the woman should have been considered a victim by the law.

“We have long fought … for the idea that children in both domestic and sexual violence circumstances have to be considered not just hapless bystanders in those crimes, but in fact they deeply affect their lives,” she said.

The law confers an automatic right to anonymity on complainants in sexual abuse cases and police did not name the arrested man on Tuesday.