Father and daughter convicted of incest after second baby - ordered to live apart for two years

New Zealand man ordered not to live on South Island for two years

The man has been ordered to stay well away from Dunedin, pictured, for two years (Rob Jefferies/Getty)

A father and daughter have been ordered to stay away from one another after admitting to having a second child together.

The pair, aged 37 and 23, were forced to confess that they had resumed their incestual relationship after their son died from sudden infant death syndrome.

A judge in their hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand, has now ordered them to stay away from one another for two years.

The father was also barred from from coming within 100km (63 miles) of the South Island city.

Calling it "very serious repeat offending", Judge Kevin Phillips said it "strikes at the heart of what the community would consider right and proper conduct," according to the Otago Daily Times.

The court heard that, the woman gave birth to their second child in June 2013.

When the baby died from sudden infant death syndrome three months later, police asked a pathologist to conduct a DNA test, which confirmed that the pair were the baby's biological parents.

The couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had already been convicted of incest in 2012 after the birth of their first child.

On that occasion they were sentenced to a supervision order and the father also received a community work order.

The court heard that the daughter is the child of the man’s relationship with his 30-year-old foster mother when he was just 13 years old.

He had little to do with his her as a child, but they began a sexual relationship shortly after they were reunited in 2010 when she was 16.

Judge Phillips said sentencing had been "an extremely difficult exercise".

He added that was concerned by the actions of her father, but said the daughter deserved "one final opportunity".

He told the father: "You need to be a master, the controller of what is now put in place, you need to be disciplined and solid in regards to your non-association with your co-defendant … it has to end totally now."

As well as the contact ban he also sentenced him to six months’ community detention.