A Mother of a 12-year-old Girl Lets a Man Train Her Daughter as a Dominatrix

Todd Barkau, started training the daughter to be a dominatrix and engage in sado-masochistic sex acts. He also began training her to engage in acts of sexual bondage, domination, sadism and masochism with him and others, according to prosecutors. He used pornography to teach the girl and watched while others had sex with her. Barkau also admitted producing and selling access to video of the girl's sex acts. He also had the girl watch pornography on the Internet as a teaching tool. When the victim was 14, Barkau set up an online business, marketing her as Mistress Alisha in both online and in-person sexual encounters.

The prosecutors said that the girl's mother assisted in the business and received financial compensation. The mother was the first parent in the United States to be charged with the commercial sex trafficking of their child in a human trafficking case. The victim, who is now 22, attended the plea hearings and told the judge that she approved of the plea agreements. Under the plea deal, Barkau and the girl's mother must forfeit the $80,000 they made from the abuse.

Todd Barkau pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Kansas City to commercial sex trafficking of a minor. He will be sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. The girl's mother pleaded guilty to the same charge. Her plea agreement calls for a 15-year sentence.

The girl's mother, whose voice seemed emotionless as she entered her plea, admitted that she knew what was going on and profited from her daughter's abuse. She showed little reaction in the Kansas City courtroom when her daughter told the judge that she supported the plea deals. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Cordes told Judge Nanette Laughrey that the victim didn't want to go through details of her abuse again at trial. Barkau and the girl's mother originally pleaded not guilty last year to the seven counts and could have faced life in prison if convicted.

Barkau was arrested near Niagara Falls and had an initial court appearance in Buffalo, New York. The mother was arrested in Dallas.

Barkau and the woman will be sentenced after pre-sentence investigations are completed.