Murdered four year-old Emma Thompson, whose mother Abigail Young (top right) is set to apply for parole after letting boyfriend Lucas Coe (bottom right) rape and murder her little girl (Pictures: KHOU)

A registered nurse who let her boyfriend rape and torture her four year-old daughter to death is set to apply for parole.

Abigail Young was jailed for 20 years in 2010 for letting her boyfriend Lucas Coe abuse her child Emma Thompson at their home in Houston, Texas.

The case sparked such revulsion it led to the creation of Emma’s Law, which only allows individuals convicted of crimes as serious to apply for parole every five years.

But because Young has now served half her prison sentence she is automatically able to apply to be freed on an annual basis again.




Emma’s paternal grandma Laurie Thompson told KHOU: ‘That’s a slap in the face to us as a family and to anyone who has suffered a loss like ours.’

Emma’s paternal grandmother Laurie Thompson, pictured, is appalled Young will now be able to apply for parole every year (Picture: KHOU)

Texas Crime Stoppers spokesman Andy Kahan added: ‘There’s no reason in the world we should be doing this every year, it’s a waste of everybody’s time, resources and energy

Three weeks before Emma’s death, the youngster was found to be suffering from sexually transmitted disease herpes.

But because there were no signs she’d been sexually abused, social workers put it down to a rare case of transmission by casual contact, and did not remove her from her home.

After Emma’s death, the youngster was found to have suffered horrific sexual and physical abuse.

She had more than 80 bruises on her body, and ultimately succumbed to injuries including a fractured skull and severed pancreas.

Young even tried to repair a painful laceration on the back of her daughter’s skull with crazy glue.

The youngster was so horrifically beaten her grieving family considered giving her a closed casket funeral.

And neighbors were stunned when Young made an announcement insisting Emma’s death had been the result of a fall from the toilet.

She claimed her daughter had suffered a diabetic seizure.

Young also blamed the bruises on Emma’s thighs – believed to have been inflicted by her boyfriend as he sexually abused her – on the force with which she pulled her daughter from the car after she passed out.

Neighbor Julius Villareal, who witnessed the bizarre defense, told the Houston Chronicle: ‘To me, she acted calm, like she had lost five dollars.’

Coe got life in prison for the killing, and was branded a ‘bogeyman’ and a ‘monster’ by Emma’s dad Ben Thompson during his sentencing hearing.

He had been charged with another assault in a separate county just before Emma’s death, but improper information sharing procedures meant social services did not find out about this until it was too late.