Girl was lured from home, forced to endure 'sadomasochistic conduct'

A 14-year-old Indiana girl was lured from her home last year and taken to a Clermont County apartment where a judge said she was forced "to endure sadomasochistic conduct.”

The teen's grandmother said in federal court Thursday that the girl had been tortured and intimidated into “sexual slavery.”

Three people, two men and a transgender woman, have now been sentenced to prison for their actions involving the girl.

More: Documents: Girl in child porn case kept in Clermont County apartment with sex toys

A Clermont County man and his partner, who as the case proceeded was identified as a transgender woman, were both sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

District Judge Susan Dlott sentenced 26-year-old Eric Ho to 30 years in prison. His partner – who is identified in court and jail records as Bryan Matthew Otero but who according to his attorney wants to be called “Lacey” – was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Ho and Otero, 28, are in a relationship that Otero hopes to continue after they are released from prison, court documents say.

A Kansas man, Ian Nathanial Smith, was sentenced in March to 30 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to a child pornography charge.

According to court documents, Smith, who was in Kansas, began communicating with the girl in 2016 using internet applications including Skype and Kik. He eventually demanded that she perform sex acts on live-streaming video.

In late April 2017, Smith picked up the girl from her Indiana home and drove her to Clermont County, “delivering her to” Ho and Otero, court documents say.

Documents say Smith made arrangements for the girl to stay with Otero and Ho at their Union Township apartment until "he could save up enough money for his own residence."

More: Prosecutors: Men harbored 14-year-old to make child porn

At the apartment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Healey said in court, “degrading and humiliating don’t even begin to describe” what the girl had to endure. Court documents describing what happened to her have been sealed.

Ho pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and child pornography charges. Otero pleaded guilty to sex trafficking.

The teen was missing for several days before the FBI working with other law enforcement agencies found her May 2, 2017 at the Union Township apartment. She was found hiding in a bedroom closet with Ho.

Healey said she is “a troubled teenager, and they exploited and took advantage of her.”

Otero and Ho identify with the “BDSM (bondage, domination, submission, and sadomasochism) lifefstyle,” according to documents filed in advance of the sentencing.

Otero wanted to be the submissive person in the relationship, her attorney, Thomas Kidd, told Dlott. Otero did not sexually assault the girl or produce child pornography, Kidd said.

The girl’s grandmother said in court that Otero should have helped her.

“Her life will be forever shattered by these heinous actions that you said you didn’t participate in, but you did nothing to stop," the grandmother told Otero. "You could not stand up for a child."