A transgender Democrat former New Hampshire state lawmaker allegedly conspired with his ex-girlfriend to obtain sexually explicit images of children.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, Stacie Laughton, a 39-year-old man who is living as a woman, has been charged with aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of children, Fox News reported Saturday.
In June, Breitbart News noted that Laughton was born Barry Charles Laughton Jr.
The man’s arrest was in connection to the arrest of a daycare worker identified as 38-year-old Lindsay Groves, who was reportedly in a relationship with Laughton at one time.
The pair allegedly worked together to get disturbing images of children where Groves was employed at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.
In June, parent Savannah Diaz told WCVB, “You don’t just wake up one day and say, ‘Hey, today’s a good day to take pictures of kids.’ She’s been there for years.”
More than 10,000 texts were reportedly found on Groves’ cell phone that had been exchanged between the pair. The messages allegedly included discussion about and transfer of explicit images Groves took of three to five-year-old children.
The Fox report detailed the alleged messages:
“So you would let me f*** the little girls that you work with.” Laughton, the first transgender legislator in New Hampshire history, asked Groves, “And you’re not screenshot Ing this and possibly use it against me at all like we’re both on the same page we both want to do this and he would let me put my d*** inside those little girls I mean what if my d*** is too big I mean its big but its not that big I think you could fit in there and if it doesn’t fit all the way then I could stop I don’t want to hurt them.”
“If they want your d*** inside them,” Groves responded.
Laughton was arrested in June on four felony counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images a few days after Groves was arrested and arraigned regarding sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography, according to Breitbart News.
The outlet said:
This week’s arrest is the latest in a string of arrests dating back over a decade for Laughton. Laughton was first elected to the New Hampshire legislature in 2012, making him one of the first openly transgender individuals to be elected to public office in the country.
In 2015, officials arrested him for making a bomb threat against a New Hampshire medical center.
However, he eventually blamed the act on “mental illness.”