Raped wife 'must pay attacker'

The CSA wants up to a third of the victim's net income

A woman who was raped by her husband has been ordered to pay him thousands of pounds in child maintenance, it has been reported.

The 43-year-old told The Independent newspaper that the payments will deprive her of the £14,000 she was awarded in 1996 in the UK's first civil damages action for rape.

The civil case judge in Bradford described the 1992 attack as a violent assault that left the wife in need of psychiatric treatment.

CSA spokeswoman Emma Quantrill told BBC News Online she could not discuss any individual case but confirmed that the agency would be obliged to accept an application for maintenance in this type of situation.

This is his way of making me think about him and the rape

Rape victim

The woman's husband, a welder for a leading vehicle manufacturer, won custody of the couple's two sons, now aged 14 and 16, before the court case.

The family court ruled the boys should be with their father in the city where they went to school.

The woman has since married her childhood sweetheart and moved to West Yorkshire.

She earns £14,000 a year as a secretary but told The Independent that the Child Support Agency (CSA) is asking her to pay her former husband up to a third of her take-home pay.

"There should be something to stop a rapist being paid by the victim, even if it's supposed to be for the children," she said.

"He still wants to control me and this is his way of making me think about him and the rape."