Couple accused of grooming child (12) to be dominatrix
Wednesday May 14 2008
PROSECUTORS in the US have accused a couple of training the woman's 12-year-old daughter to be a dominatrix, selling sexual services and photographing the acts. The girl is now 20.
Todd Barkau (35) of New York state, and a 44-year-old woman, face seven charges.
They once lived together in Blue Springs, Missouri, where the sex business was allegedly run.
"Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix,'' federal attorney John Wood said at a news conference in Kansas City. Mr Barkau was arrested near Niagara Falls and had an initial court appearance in New York.
Arrested
The mother was arrested on Friday in Dallas, Texas, and was due to appear at the Northern District of Texas court yesterday.
The indictment said Mr Barkau began training the girl in 2000 when she was 12 and forced her to engage in sex acts with him and other men. He also, according to the charges, had the girl watch pornography on the Internet as a teaching tool.
Mr Barkau is accused of creating a business out of the couple's Missouri home when the girl was 14 and marketing her as a 19-to-20-year-old dominatrix on the Web for about two years.
The mother is charged with participating in the venture. Prosecutors will also seek $80,000 (€52,000) the couple is accused of having made through sex trafficking, Mr Wood said.
