Sexual assault can be a bit vague of a term. To be clear, she was raped by her stepfather. He went to jail and her mother took his side. And Dr. Acton was eventually removed from her mother's care for good reason.

Edit: I got it slightly wrong. /u/booly said this:. I appreciate their correction

[H]e [the step father] was facing criminal charges for raping her from the ages of 9 to 12, so her mother actively helped him flee the state and hide from justice until he died 25 years later. The mother chose to stand by her child's rapist, moving states with him and leaving her children behind, so the state where they were left behind had to take the abandoned children into custody.