A Kentucky mother was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for producing child pornography involving children as young as 9 months, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky reports.
Paige Cagle, 26, pleaded guilty in January to a single count but admitted that she sexually abused a child from 9 months to 1 1/2 years and made two videos of the abuse while she lived in Joplin, Missouri, and three more while in Clark County, Kentucky.
Cagle also said she shared those videos with other people via Dropbox and admitted she had more child porn images of girls from ages 4 to 13 years old.
“The defendant’s production of child pornography was particularly heinous, and the sentence imposed was well justified by the facts of this case,” said US Attorney Robert M. Duncan, Jr.
Cagle’s plea agreement says that a third party informed officers about receiving pornographic images from Cagle on March 1, 2019. She was indicted in April of that year.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case, the third party was a former friend of Cagle’s who knew her when she lived in Missouri and who came under investigation for receiving child porn. He told investigators he had received the content from Cagle, who was by then living in Kentucky.
The affidavit says that the 9 month to 1 1/2 year old child seen in the videos was her own daughter. She also told investigators that she had been abused as a child and had been viewing child porn since she was a teenager and wanted to stop.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Cagle must serve 85 percent of her sentence (21 years and 3 months) and will be on probation for life.
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[Featured image: Paige Cagle/Fayette County Detention Center]
