A daycare worker who is accused of making and distributing child porn made her first court appearance on Wednesday, and was met with outbu...
A daycare worker who is accused of making and distributing child porn made her first court appearance on Wednesday, and was met with outbursts from angry parents.
Lindsay Groves, 38, who worked at a daycare center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, is accused of taking sexually explicit photos of young children under her care. Groves was charged after an investigation from police, which also led to the arrest of the nation’s first transgender-identifying state lawmaker, Stacie Marie Laughton.
According to prosecutors, Groves texted sexually explicit photos to someone “with whom she was previously in an intimate relationship.” The Boston Herald reported that Groves is a “former partner” of Laughton.
Groves’ appearance at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston prompted a strong response from those in attendance.
“I want to f****** kill that b****,” one woman said. “You need to rot in jail!”
Another woman, whose daughter went to the daycare Groves worked at, said she did not know if her daughter had been one of the young children sexually exploited.
“As any parent would, you want to grab her, but you don’t want to get kicked out,” Rosemary Denomme told NBC 10. “I came down like any parent would, you want to follow this and I want to fight the fight for my daughter and all those kids.”
Some of the victims have been identified by police, including three males and one female. “How long was this going on for? Where did these photos go? I want to know who is going to be held accountable,” another mother, whose 3-year-old son was a victim, said.
Groves could face 50 years in prison if convicted of all charges. Laughton was previously accused of stalking Groves, according to the Daily Mail.
Laughton was born Barry Charles Laughton, Jr., has resigned twice from the New Hampshire state house, and has an extensive criminal record. Laughton was arrested in connection to the same investigation for distributing child porn.
In 2008, he was convicted of credit card felony, according to the New Hampshire Union-Leader. In 2012, Laughton became the first transgender-identifying person elected as a state lawmaker, thrilling LGBT activists.
“I believe that at this point, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community will hopefully be inspired,” Laughton said at the time. “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman. Maybe in the next election, we’ll have a senator.”
Shortly after the election, Laughton stepped down after the credit card fraud allegations came to light. Laughton was later sentenced to six months in jail after making a bomb threat to a hospital in 2015. In July 2021, Laughton was arrested for giving police false information.
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