It’s life in prison for a Tennessee father who sold his daughters to a man who raped the three girls and used them in child pornography.
Federal prosecutors requested the life sentence from U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer, saying the 63-year-old father showed “complete unwillingness to accept responsibility for his conduct and decisions and his history of neglect and abuse of his children demonstrate a great need [to protect the public].”
These words were echoed by U.S. Attorney Helen Smith, who shared in the written request, “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.”
According to court documents, both the father and mother, 41, who were indicted in 2013, were involved in the sale of their daughters, ages 12, 14 and 16 when they were discovered by police. While it’s not clear when the girls were discovered, apparently, officers were responding to a complaint that the girls were being neglected and were not going to school. Evidence revealed a two-year pattern of sexual abuse, rape and the production of 400 images of child sexual abuse.
In January, the father, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the children, was found guilty on four counts of the indictment, including the selling of a child by a parent, production of child pornography, production of child pornography by parents, and coercion and enticement of a minor, according to ABC News. The mother, who pleaded guilty to production of child pornography by a parent, was sentenced to serve 18 years in prison.
When sentencing the father on Monday, June 6, U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer said the case was one of the most horrible crimes he had ever seen.
