u/rqmantic

To start off, at the time this happened the step dad (we’ll call him rob) was living under the same house as my friend (fake name: Candace, her mom (fn: Jenny), and her younger sister (fn: Brittney). Rob is not at all a good contributing member of the household or influence as he constantly drinks at every hour of the day, does not help his girlfriend (Jenny) with any house work except try to get her high and drunk, doesn’t let the wife have his location while he’s out, etc.. so hopefully from this you can tell the type of person he is.

Continuing on, when Candace was 10 she had unrestricted access to the internet using her ipad and came across porn, which she became interested in. One day her mom Jenny checks her search history and finds these porn links and confronts her as she looks through it all. Jenny eventually gets overwhelmed and hands the tablet to Rob to finish searching through (why? I have no idea.)

Rob searches through the tablet and goes to Candace in secret and says “you know, if you want someone to try these things out with you can always ask me. I think it’s hot you like this.” Which Candace immediately turns down and tells him she will not. (This is essentially is what starts Robs “desire” for Candace sexually..)

As the years go by, when Jenny wasn’t around to see and when Brittney wasn’t in the room Rob would slap Candace’s ass, flirt with her, and try to get her alone with him whenever he could.

When they would go on vacations Rob would sneak in Candace’s room at night and tell her to take her clothes off for him while everyone was asleep - which she declined and told him to get out (after some resisting he did).

Rob eventually started this series of grossly actions at home by sneaking in Candace’s room and taking her clothes off while she was asleep and even forcing her to suck his dick or else he would tell the mom about her vaping issue. (Which did happen.)

Rob continued on by insisting on driving and taking Candace places when she needed to in order to continue trying to come onto her. He attempted to touch her thigh, he showed her videos of him and her mom having sex, saying he wished it was her he was fucking, how much better Candace looked then her mom, etc.

Oh it continues.. he even went out of his way to get off work early when Britany and Jenny weren’t home to get Candace drunk and fuck her (he didn’t get to do things to her, as I know of, but he did provide alcohol to her and attempt to get her to do things which she declined and ran off to her room).

Fast forward to present time, Candace is now 18 and Rob is 50. They still live under the same roof (Candace hasn’t left for college yet) and Rob can’t attempt to do these things with her as much since Candace now has a car and she avoids him as much as possible. BUT, he still tries to and provides her alcohol as well as attempts to get her to stay in the living room with him while the mom and little sister are away (of course with sexual intent).

I asked Candace why she won’t report it to the police and she says because “she doesn’t have enough proof”, her mom wouldn’t believe her, and she would risk being hurt or worse by him (he’s previous been charged with aggravated assault). She also thinks her mom would take her car and her phone and not let her go out anymore (limiting her access to report it). She told me she would “probably” report it once she’s out of the house and “ready” but I don’t 100% believe her (she’s a very conflict avoidant person..). She also said she would be very upset if I reported it, but I truly believe she’s going to get nervous and say “but it happened so long ago, it’s over with, he can’t do anything now” (things she’s somewhat said or mentioned). I don’t want to ruin our friendship but I feel like if I don’t report this then I’m not being a good friend.

So finally, is it still possible to report this case and get the step dad arrested? Should I report it even with “little” evidence? Or should I just let her report it when “she’s ready”?

FYI:

• The mom (Jenny) always sides with the stepdad (Rob) with issues and often lets him “run the house”.

• Jenny has previously caught Candace smoking and drinking (alcohol and other substances he provided her but the mom wasn’t aware of) and has therefore lost all trust with her.

• I have a feeling Rob has taken videos/pictures of Candace at night (when he snuck in her room) but I do not have proof and neither does Candace.