Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Thursday sentenced a woman who prostituted a minor to 20 years in prison.
Beginning as early as 2018, Carrie Little recruited women and had others recruit women to engage in prostitution. Among those recruited was a 17-year-old minor. Little provided the victim with a place to live and placed sexually suggestive and explicit photos of the minor in online ads for commercial sex. Little took calls to arrange sexual encounters and to arrange the price. After the encounters, men paid Little or the victim, who was required to give most of the money to Little.
“There was a very toxic combination of verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect, blaming and much more that all resulted in mental strain and the feeling of shame, which a child should never have to feel,” wrote the victim, who is now an adult, in a letter to the court. Little, she wrote, began by having her handle phone calls and post ads for others before bringing her on “dates,” “slowly preparing me for the worst.” “I was sold to many men to perform sexual acts to make money for you. You controlled my every move, money, and everything else. You allowed my innocence and the chance of a normal childhood to be completely taken away for your selfish intentions.”
Little, 44, pleaded guilty in August to one count of coercion or enticement of a minor.
The St. Louis County Police Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case as part of the FBI St. Louis Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The Hazelwood Police Department also investigated the case. Crisis Aid International and the International Institute of Saint Louis assisted victims associated with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dianna Edwards and Nathan Chapman prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.