A woman who made a sex tape with her teenage son after they were reunited after 15 years apart claims their relationship was not incest - but a case of 'genetic attraction'.
Mistie Rebecca Atkinson, 32, was sentenced to four years and eight months behind bars in Napa County Superior Court, California on Wednesday.
It came after she was found in a Ukiah, California motel room with the 16-year-old boy, who had recorded his mother giving him oral sex on his phone.
Sick: Mistie Atkinson, 32, (pictured left in her police mug shot and right on Facebook) has been convicted of incest after having sex with her son, 16 - but she claims it was a case of 'genetic attraction'
Authorities also recovered nude photos Atkinson had sent him after tracking him down through Facebook. She had not seen him for 15 years.
But in a letter to the court, Atkinson, claimed she did not consider it incest, the
Napa Valley Register reported.
'I don't feel like I should have the charge of incest because there is something called genetic attraction that is a very powerful [phenomenon] that happens to 50 [per cent] of people becoming reunited with a long-lost relative,' she wrote.
Little research has been carried out on genetic sexual attraction. But some psychologists say family members who are separated for a long time could become sexually attracted to each other when they meet as adults.
Guilty: Atkinson's son had a video on his phone of his mother giving him oral sex, police said
Caught: They were found together in a motel room after relatives learned of their explicit Facebook messages
Atkinson could be out in as little as two years and four months for good behaviour.
GENETIC SEXUAL ATTRACTION
Genetic sexual attraction is a phenomenon where close biological family members, such as siblings or cousins, become attracted to each other when they meet as adults.
If family members do not know each other during the critical years of development, they risk finding each other attractive.
Little research has been carried out into the phenomenon but some psychologists claim it exists due to shared personality traits, which are desirable in a partner.
GSA is rare between people brought up together, due to reverse sexual printing, where people become desensitized to finding family members attractive to prevent inbreeding.
She reportedly had no contact with her son until last year when she began sending him inappropriate messages on the social networking site.
The boy was living with his father at the time and was aware Atkinson was his mother. She did not have custody rights to her him.
'It appears she hadn't had any contact with the son for 15 years' a source told the New York Daily News.
'She contacted him late last year via Facebook and was sending him messages inappropriately.'
The sexual contact began after police responded to domestic violence reports between Atkinson and her live-in boyfriend in Nice, California.
The relationship came to light when the boy's relatives reported the inappropriate Facebook messages between him and Atkinson.
Atkinson and the teen were found in a motel room on March 2.
Apart: Atkinson had tracked down her son through Facebook after 15 years apart
Convicted: Atkinson was sentenced to more than four years behind bars at Napa County Superior Court
Police found videos on the boy’s phone from a month earlier showing Atkinson performing oral sex on the teenager and having sex with him.
Atkinson also sent nude pictures of herself to him from her phone, court documents said. They had also talked about running away together.
In May, she had pleaded no contest to incest, oral copulation, lewd contact with a minor and distribution of lewd material to a minor.
Las cosas como son
