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Mother charged with child porn involving daughter
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy shares the some of the disturbing details, some of which are punishable by death.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Pinellas County woman has been arrested on child pornography and capital sexual battery charges after investigators say she forced her 11-year-old daughter to perform sex acts on video.
The backstory:
Last Friday, October 10, 2025, the sheriff’s office received information that a man was involved in obtaining and viewing child pornography and was also involved in meeting with young children to engage in sexual activity.
That person was a 38-year-old man, who the sheriff’s office chose not to name because there is an ongoing investigation into his activities.
The sheriff said the man was getting child pornography videos from a woman in St. Petersburg and the woman was texting the videos to the suspect.
The child involved in the child pornography was her 11-year-old daughter.
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According to the sheriff, the mother sent the man at least 14 very explicit and very involved photos of her daughter performing sex acts.
"The things that the mother did to the daughter are graphic, and they are grotesque," Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
"During March and April of this year, the mother created at least 14 videos of her 11-year-old daughter posing at the mother’s direction and engaging in various sex acts, including bestiality with the family dog," Gualtieri said.
Other videos involved the mother using sex toys on her daughter.
"These acts constitute sexual battery or, as commonly referred to, as rape, and because of the child’s age, the mother’s crimes are capital offenses punishable by death," Gualtieri explained.
By the numbers:
A search warrant was served at the mother and daughter’s home and d0eputies arrested the mother on 41 total charges, including four counts of capital sexual battery with each count carrying the maximum penalty of death. She was also charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, 13 counts of transmission of child pornography, 13 counts of sexual performance by a child, three counts of sexual activity involving animals, four counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of the unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
The man involved in this case is facing several felony charges, including child pornography and traveling to meet a minor to engage in sex.
When interviewed by detectives, the sheriff said the mother admitted to forcing her daughter to perform sex acts on video and sending the videos to the man.
Investigators don’t believe that the girl’s father, who lived in the same home, knew about what was happening. Gualtieri added that there is no indication that the 11-year-old’s sibling was involved either.
"There are those that will be skeptical of this, and I understand the skepticism. I think that I've probably experienced the same skepticism, but, based upon the interviews and the investigation so far, we do believe that the father didn't know anything about this. And so, that's a good thing in the sense that she is still with her father, but DCF (Department of Children and Families) is very involved in this, and they're going to pay close attention to it. We're going to make sure that the right thing is done by her and that she gets services," the sheriff said.
The sheriff also said the family and the victim have victim advocates working with them.
What they're saying:
The sheriff said child porn in America is out of control and his agency is investigating it every day.
"These cases are the worst cases of child abuse and in this case, it’s not just sexually abusing a child, it’s gross sexual abuse of a young girl by her mother to satisfy an adult with a perverse craving for watching kids engaged in sex acts," Gualtieri explained.
"The predators who like watching kids engage in sex with dogs and then go online to try to meet kids to have sex with them are nothing but predators," he added.
Since January 2025, the sheriff said they have booked 84 people into the jail on more than 900 charges of possessing or distributing child pornography.
The mother made her first appearance in court Tuesday. The judge Tuesday ordered the mother not to have contact with the victim.
Another judge will be hearing the issue of bond at a later date, but some of the charges don’t even qualify for bond. The woman’s husband, the 11-year-old’s father, was in court too and was visibly upset, and appeared to be praying at one point. He and an older man and woman spoke with the prosecutor before and after the first appearance.
What's next:
Gualtieri noted that investigators are still trying to determine the relationship between the mother and the male subject, but says it appears that they met online. They’re also investigating how money was exchanged.
"A lot of times in these cases, there is somebody in the chain someplace that does profit off of it. There is some money somewhere in it, but sometimes it's just quid pro quo exchanging between the parties. And so, we've got some search warrants that have been executed on some of the electronic devices in this case. Some that still need to be executed. So, we're still trying to figure out if there was any money exchanged, or put it this way, where the money was exchanged somewhere in the chain of all this, but there's always money involved in it some place. The question is where. Nobody's doing it for free," the sheriff said.
Detectives are also trying to determine how many other people the mother may have sent the videos to.
The Source: This story was written with information provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.