A couple have been give a life sentence they cannot ever finish serving after a court found them guilty in a rape and sexual assault offense.
Stephen Howells
A man and woman have been sentenced to 880 years in federal prison after they kidnapped and sexually abused two Amish girls in northern New York, last year. Nicole Vaisey, 26, and Stephen Howells, 39, were caught in August 2014 after they used a puppy to lure the two young Amish girls away from their family's roadside farm stand, where they were selling vegetables.
Nicole Vaisey
They then kept them captive for the next 24 hours, handcuffing them so they couldn't run away from Howell's home in upstate New York. Howells sexually assaulted the children as Vaisey watched and filmed them. The couple were arrested after the girls were released the next day and left on the side of the road.
Vaisey later admitted that she and her boyfriend Howells had sexually exploited the two girls, aged just six and 11, as well as four other children, who were drugged and recorded during sex acts. Howells had admitted the offences against the girls and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually exploiting four other children, ranging in ages from five to 11, according to U.S. attorney Richard Hartunian.
Vaisey walks down the stairs as Howell follows as they are escorted by police officers
When questioned, Vaisey told police she and Howells had been out on a 'shopping trip' for slaves when they kidnapped the sisters that summer night.
Judge Glenn Suddaby gave the couple no credit for the release, accepting prosecutors' theory they would have kept the girls as sex slaves if a soundproof cell in their home had been completed.
Howells told the judge that he took advantage of the inexperienced Vaisey and 'twisted her around' for his own sexual gratification, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported.
'The evil that I've done is my own,' he said.
'You are the threat that parents worry about every day,' Suddaby told Howells, who used his job as a registered nurse to get the drugs used to subdue the victims. 'You are the nightmare that never goes away for children.'
Judge Glenn Suddaby without mercy, sentenced both to the maximum possible terms, which prosecutors recommended - 580 years for Howells on 21 charges and 300 years for Vaisey on 10 counts.