A Butler County man is jailed on charges he fathered four children with a daughter he raped for more than 20 years.

The Summit Township man began the alleged abuse in 1992 when the daughter was 12 and continued until August when she reported the allegations, state police said.

Police on Friday arrested the suspect on 71 counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory rape, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault and incest.

He is in the Butler County Prison on $500,000 bail.

The defendant is not named to avoid identifying the alleged victim.

Trooper Gesuele Burello said the accuser plied his daughter with alcohol to “overcome her resistance” when the alleged abuse started.

He said the suspect also forced his daughter to have sex with him “or suffer unpleasant and painful consequences.”

Burello said the woman for years kept her secret because her father had convinced her that she, too, was to blame.

“There was a lot of grooming by him, with him telling her that she would be in just as much trouble as he if this came out,” Burello said.

The trooper declined to say what ultimately led the accuser on Aug. 26 to disclose the allegations. She initially told authorities with the Butler County Children and Youth Services.

Burello said he first interviewed the alleged victim Aug. 30.

He said the woman apparently lived with her mother in Ohio until she was 12.

“At some point she was unable to care for the (victim),” Burello said. “(The victim) said her mother dropped her off with her father.”

The defendant at the time was living alone in Allegheny County.

During the years of suspected sexual abuse that followed, the accuser delivered four children — in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2000, all in Allegheny County.

After his daughter raised the allegations, the defendant agreed to submit to genetic paternity tests. They established that he is the father of the accuser and her four children.

Police tried to interview the defendant on Friday but he invoked his right to speak to his attorney so the interview was terminated.

The woman’s children are in foster care under CYS custody.