An Australian woman who had an apparently healthy baby with her father pleaded for approval of the couple’s incestuous relationship. Both father and daughter appeared on national television with their nine-old-month child, Celeste. After going public, they are currently being monitored by police and social services.

Jenny Deaves, 39, and his father John, 61, said they would like to be treated like an average couple, despite being biologically related. “John and I are in this relationship as consenting adults,” Jenny Deaves told the Nine Network. “We are just asking for a little bit of respect and understanding,” she added.

According to court documents, the couple previously had another child, who died due to a congenital heart defect just a few days after birth. John and Jenny Deaves appeared on television after they pleaded guilty to incest and were prohibited by a judge from having sexual contacts.

John Deaves married Jenny’s mother 40 years ago, but the woman divorced him, as he was jailed for armed robbery. Jenny did not see her father until eight years ago, by which time they were both married. She explained that there was an immediate physical attraction between her and John Deaves, and that they began their sexual relationship two weeks after their meeting.

“I was looking at him, sort of going, oh, he's not too bad,” she said quoted by AFP. “Like you might look at a man across the bar at a nightclub,” she added.

Her father admitted he knew it was illegal to have sex with his daughter. “Emotions take over, as people no doubt realize, there are times during your life where emotions do rule the heart, it rules the head…I knew it was illegal, of course I knew it was illegal but you know, so what,” he explained.

A spokeswoman for the South Australian Courts Administration Authority declared that both father and daughter were placed on three-year good behavior bonds on March 20 after being convicted of incest. They are not allowed having further sexual contacts.