‘Play with Daddie’s Little Girl’: Prison for man who offered his 4-year-old for sex
Andrew Turley put a Craigslist ad up in late 2015 with the hopes of making $1,000.
That decision just landed him behind bars for 60 years.
Police arrested Turley in November 2015 for trying to sell his 4-year-old daughter to strangers for sex, according to WWLP. Undercover officers with the Houston Police Department found an ad titled “Play with Daddie’s (sic) Little Girl” and began to talk with Turley, sending him 69 emails.
The ad said Turley had a girl “younger than 10” who might be “too young for intercourse but everything else was OK,” according to WVTM13.
Turley, who was from Wisconsin, told the undercover officer that his daughter lived with her mother in an apartment near Houston, Texas. The then-28-year-old father said the men could get two hours alone with his girl at the apartment when he visited her, according to KHOU.
Turley said that he would put the child on sleep medicine beforehand.
Officers met up with Turley in November 2015, gave him cash and found “a 4-year-old child who appeared to be under the influence or in a groggy state (and) also appeared to be unclothed under the blanket,” prosecutor Ann Johnson told WWLP. The girl was on sleeping pills, police say, and Turley was charged with trafficking a child and compelling prostitution of a minor.
A jury found Turley guilty of those charges on Friday and sentenced him to 60 years in prison, according to KHOU. He is eligible for parole after 45 years.
Assistant District Attorney Stewanna Miskell, a prosecutor in the case, said, “This case broke my heart.”
“A father is supposed to be a protector not a predator,” he told WVTM13. “Jurors saw the need to keep him out of our community.”
Craigslist just announced that it shut down its “personals” section — which aims to connect people looking for romance or sex — after the U.S. Congress passed a law fighting child sex trafficking, according to NPR. The online platform wrote that the new law will “subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.”
Craigslist argued that it’s taking down the section because “any tool or service can be misused.”
“To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through craigslist,” the statement read, “we wish you every happiness!”
This story was originally published March 24, 2018 at 11:44 AM with the headline "‘Play with Daddie’s Little Girl’: Prison for man who offered his 4-year-old for sex."