Jurors will get to hear some of the testimony from the children and the former wife of a New Jersey man accused of repeatedly raping his five daughters and terrorizing his family.
A judge in Passaic County on Friday also set a date for the first trial to begin May 3.
At a hearing last week, 51-year-old Aswad Ayinde's former wife described in a calm voice her marriage to a man whose visions of an apocalypse she said drove him to try to create "pure'' family bloodlines by impregnating several of his teenager daughters.
"He said the world was going to end and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen,'' the woman testified.
Arrested in 2006, Ayinde stands accused of raping five of his daughters, three of whom are believed to have given birth to a total of six children. He is being held on $1 million bond.
Having been ruled competent to stand trial earlier this year, he faces 27 charges including aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, lewdness, child endangerment, aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual contact.
"We plan to proceed with all five trials if necessary,'' said Lisa Squitieri, the Passaic County prosecutor handling the case.
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Authorities say the assaults began in the mid-1980s and lasted until 2002, when the parents separated, and occurred at residences in Paterson, East Orange, Orange and Eatontown. The time period overlaps with the family's coming to the attention of the state's child welfare agency.
According to court records and published reports, Ayinde was arrested in 2000 and charged with kidnapping for allegedly trying to take three of his children from state custody at a Monmouth County medical center. He posted bail and later pleaded guilty to assault and child endangerment and was sentenced to a year's probation.
Prosecutors in Passaic County say one of the daughters, then in her early teens, was raped as late as January 2002.
A release from the Prosecutor's Office said Judge Raymond Reddin ruled that the state "will be allowed to describe the defendant's use of extreme violence to intimidate and control his family."
In addition, "the anticipated testimony will show a father exercising total dominion over his family. The victims were born at home, never schooled, never documented, psychologically manipulated and totally isolated. The mother was subject to recurring physical assault, usually in the children's presence."
New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services declined to comment, citing confidentiality requirements.
But Ayinde's wife and one of his daughters testified that the agency had indeed removed at least one of the children from the family's home, and that the family had temporarily moved, first to Jersey City and then to Florida, to avoid the agency's investigation.
In her testimony, his daughter described experiencing and witnessing beatings administered with wooden boards and steel-toed boots. She said minor transgressions often were punished by the withholding of food.
The girl's mother testified some of the babies were delivered at home and never received birth certificates, and said in at least two instances babies who died in the home were buried without authorities being notified.
The children were home-schooled, she said, and were discouraged from interacting with other kids.
"No one really asked questions of each other because somebody would tell on somebody and somebody would get in trouble,'' she said.
Even after she became aware of sexual abuse, she said she was too frightened to confront him.
"I was afraid to ever accuse him of being demented, or being a pedophile. I knew the word but I wouldn't dare use it because it would result in a beating,'' she said. "I'm sure my not standing up to him didn't help the kids. They felt disempowered also. There was just a lot of fear. Everybody was threatened.''
