Tennessee Man Sells Daughters To Child Pornographer, Gets Life Sentence
A Tennessee man has been given a sentence of life in prison for selling his daughters to a child pornographer, WTNH(New Haven, Connecticut) is reporting. The girls’ mother has also been sentenced to 18 years in prison for her role in the crime.
In an exceptionally rare scenario, the media is not naming the mother or the father for fear that revealing that information could compromise the girls’ privacy and possibly lead to them being identified. The media only rarely reveals the names of child victims of sex crimes.
It is not clear, as of this writing, when police initially became aware of the girls’ plight. According to court documents, the three girls — aged 12, 14, and 16 when they were discovered — were brought to the attention of the authorities after receiving a complaint that they were being neglected, not going to school, and experiencing medical problems that were not being treated, according to Tony Clark, the district attorney in Tennessee’s Washington, Carter, Johnson, and Unicoi counties.
A fourth child living at the home — a girl aged five — was removed from the home, along with the three other girls. The younger girl was not involved in the child pornography complaint.
The now-63-year-old father was indicted in 2013, and later found guilty by a jury in federal court. He was convicted of selling of a child by a parent, production of child pornography, production of child pornography by parents, and coercion and enticement of a minor. The girls’ now-41-year-old mother pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography by a parent.
“This offense is the most serious… that undersigned counsel has prosecuted during her thirty years of federal service. Words cannot adequately describe the seriousness of the offense.”
U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer agreed and sentenced the father to life in prison, according to Indian Express.
As of this writing, the name of the child pornographer who produced the images of the children has not been made public, and the outcome of his or her role in the criminal case has not been made public.
According to a 2015 WSMV (Nashville) report, child pornography is a huge problem in middle Tennessee. Dr. Lisa Milam, a forensic social worker with Our Kids (an agency that works with Tennessee kids who have been victimized by sexual abuse), says that cops are increasingly finding images of child pornography and then tracing those images back to Tennessee children.
Much of the problem has to do with teenagers, and even younger kids, using cell phones and mobile devices to take pornographic pictures of themselves and share them with one another.
“We, as adults … have become unwitting allies to the child pornography industry. Because every time we hand a child an electronic device, we’re handing them pornography, or at least access to it. If you give me 100 teenagers with 100 cell phones, I would dare say that 95 percent of them have images of themselves that would stun or shock a parent.”
Do you think a life sentence in prison is fair punishment for selling one’s children to a child pornographer?
[Image via Shutterstock/fasphotographic]
