E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Lake County, Ind., Sheriff's Department via AP
Christopher M. Bour of Gary, Ind., is one of two people indicted this week on federal charges involving the alleged sale of a young child for use in producing child pornography.
An Indiana woman is charged in a federal indictment with selling her 1½-year-old daughter to a man she met through a dating service for child pornography, according to court documents.
Natisha Hillard, 24, and Christopher M. Bour, 39, both of Gary, are charged in the five-count grand jury indictment unsealed this week and filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hammond.
Hillard is charged with selling her daughter to Bour knowing the girl "would be portrayed in a visual depiction assisting another person to engage in sexually explicit conduct" and with permitting the girl to participate in the production of child pornography.
Bour is charged with production of child pornography, purchasing a child for production of child pornography and possession of child pornography. The indictment says he used the toddler to "assist him to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction."
The alleged price wasn't disclosed. All of the charges are felonies.
In a criminal complaint filed in the case, the FBI said a woman whom it didn't identify approached it last month to report that Bour, whom she described as a friend, had sent her explicit text messages asking whether she was interested in joining him to "watch me play with a baby tomorrow — a real one."
According to the FBI, the woman, who previously operated a massage parlor, said she visited Bour's home to give him massages. On her second visit, which was about three weeks ago, according to the complaint, she said she saw child porn videos playing on his laptop computer.
At that point, the FBI launched a sting operation. An agent assumed the woman's identity and began new text message conversations with Bour, according to the complaint.
In extremely explicit transcripts included in the court docket, which NBC News is not publishing or linking to, the man identified in the indictment as Bour describes his love of young children and what he liked to do with them sexually.
"Its the best sex I ever had," he is quoted as having written.
At least three video files, all with obscene titles and depicting sex with prepubescent boys and girls, were found on Bour's computer, the FBI said. Image files specifically showing Bour engaging in such behavior were also recovered, the FBI said.
An adult woman could be seen in some of the photos, according to an FBI probable cause filing, which said it was able to identify her as Hillard through a telephone number on Bour's cellphone, which led to her driver's license information in state records. It said Bour confirmed that he knew the woman and said he had met her through a dating service.
Hillard and Bour were being held without bond and were scheduled to be arraigned Monday.