Justin Harris , a Republican, legally adopted the two girls in March 2013 - but handed them over after just six months to Eric Francis - a headteacher at a school run by Harris who would go on to rape the six-year-old. In the wake of the scandal, Harris claimed the girls had threatened to kill the rest of his family and had 'crushed to death' a family pet.
An Arkansas politician claims he gave away his two adopted daughters, aged three and six, to a rapist because they were threatening to kill his family, and had already crushed a family pet to death.
Justin Harris, a Republican who sits in the state's House of Representatives, legally adopted the two girls in March 2013 - but handed them over after just six months to a man who would go on to rape the eldest.
Eric Francis, the head teacher at a Christian school Harris ran, was allowed to look after the two girls, and had custody of them for more than a year before he was arrested for sexual assault.
Francis is now serving 40 years in prison for his crimes against the six-year-old. Both girls have since found a new home.
Harris, however, has been engulfed in scandal this week - as it only just emerged that he had legally adopted the girls - a fact he neglected to mention when publicly commenting on the rape when it first came to light.
As part of his attempt to justify his actions, Harris has claimed the young girls, and their eight-year-old sister whom he also took in but did not formally adopt, were threatening to kill his family.
Harris, who has three biological sons, said the eldest girl, who was eight, said she would 'kill everyone in the family'.
He took the death threat so seriously, he said, that he, his wife and their three sons barricaded themselves in a separate room at night for safety.
Harris also claimed that another of the girls 'crushed a family pet to death', further convincing them to get rid of their recently-adopted charges.
He did not specify what kind of pet it was, nor whether the three-year-old or the six-year-old was responsible.
Harris, who was first elected in 2010, made his public statements after initially refusing to comment.
The Arkansas Times revealed the link between Harris and the rape victim in an expos? this week, after learning that he had adopted the girls from prosecutor documents used in Francis' trial.
Despite the legal evidence, Harris at first refuse to confirm the link, then quoted a passage from the Bible.
'No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you,' he told the reporter.
He then added: 'You don't know what we've been through this past year. You have no idea what my family has been through. I don't care what the people of Arkansas think about me.
'I don't care if I lose my position. I care what my wife thinks about me, and I care what my three sons think about me.'
According to a police report from Sgt. Kimberly A. Warren: 'Mr. and Mrs. Harris placed the girls into the care of Eric Francis and his wife Stacy [sic] Francis in October 2013.
'It was later reported to the Department of Human Services that Mr. and Mrs. Harris had left the children with another family and had basically abandoned them. This incident was reported to the child abuse hotline and the children were interviewed.'
It was during that interview that police learned the 6-year-old had been the victim of sexual abuse.
She stated that Francis had raped her genital area to help her go to sleep, a claim he did not deny.
The incident happened while his wife was away for two weeks on a trip to Pennsylvania.
It was also reported in the story that the Harris family 'continued to accept adoption subsidy money even after giving the children away.'
Following the publication of the story, he and his wife, who have three biological sons, released a statement through their lawyer.
'Rep. and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home,' the statement read.
'Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how.'