First “Openly Transgender” State Legislator Sentenced To 33 Years In Prison For Child Sexual Exploitation

CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains disturbing details regarding the sexual abuse and sexualization of very young children. Reader discretion is appreciated.

A male politician credited as being the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for child sexual exploitation. Stacie Marie Laughton, born Barry Charles Laughton Jr., requested and received child sexual abuse material from a former romantic partner who worked at a Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, daycare.

Laughton was first charged in 2023 after the police department in Nashua, New Hampshire, received a report that he had sent child sexual abuse images to another individual. Disturbed, that individual brought the images to police, who confirmed that Laughton had sent four images depicting the genitals of extremely young children to this individual via text. NPD then interviewed Laughton, who admitted to receiving child sexual abuse images from his former partner, Lindsay Groves, who was an employee at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in nearby Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.

Speaking with police, Groves admitted to taking the images, and stated that Laughton had asked her to do so after expressing a sexual interest in children.

According to court records, police obtained a search warrant for both of the suspect’s devices, and found they had exchanged over 10,000 messages that included explicit discussions of the sexual abuse of children.

From a text conversation between Groves and Laughton, as detailed in court records.

Groves began to take exploitative images of the children at her workplace and sent them to Laughton for his sexual gratification. The images include photos of boys and girls as young as 3 years of age being told to expose their genitals for the camera, and were taken during bathroom breaks or routine diaper changes before the children took naps.

On June 13, 2023, just days before their arrest, Groves sent Laughton a photo of a three-year-old boy with his genitals exposed and a second photo of a three-year-old girl with her genitals exposed. 

Groves said, “I took these for you today so I’m horny.” 

Laughton responded, “I like that I would like to see more of the pussy but I like that it[’s] fucking hot,” and asked, “Is that one of the girls we get to play with[?]”

Groves boasted neither of the child victims “gave her an issue.” 

Laughton continued: “That girl looks sweet … Do you think she would like sucking me and me rubbing my dick on her?” To which Groves responded, “Yeah.”

Laughton added, “It’s just a bummer she wont let me put my dick inside of her,” and Groves answered, “She’s not even 3 yet.”

The next morning, Laughton wrote to Groves in a lengthy, nervous message: “And I’m sorry I talk so much but the other thing I think about is do you think God is OK with us being bad girls[?]”

He continued, “…[some people] say having sex with kids is a bad thing and God never addresses sex with children in the Bible and God never really condemns say different sexual lifestyles but what do you think? Do you think we still have a place in heaven? Do you think God would still be OK with me being a minister[?]”

As previously revealed by Reduxx, Laughton became an ordained Minister and delivered his first sermon on YouTube earlier this year. According to GetOrdained, Laughton affiliated himself with Buddhism, Methodism, New Age, Oneness Pentecostalism, Pentecostalism, Protestantism, Rastafarianism, Spiritualism, Tibetan Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and the Universal Life Church.

Laughton and Groves were ultimately charged with federal child sex offenses as their crimes crossed the border between two states – New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

In the 2023 press release from the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts on his charges, Laughton was described as a “woman.” He was also referred to by feminine pronouns throughout the course of the trial.

Laughton was formerly a Democratic representative in New Hampshire, first elected to the legislature in 2012. He became known as the first openly transgender individual to hold public office in the United States, but withdrew before taking the role when it was revealed that he had served four months in prison in 2008 on a felony conviction for identity and credit card fraud and falsifying physical evidence. 

A special election was scheduled a few weeks later, and Laughton signed up to run again. But officials barred him from holding public office as, according to state law, he had not completed his sentence.

After the sentence related to the 2008 conviction was exhausted, Laughton was allowed to run for office again in 2019. He was elected selectman in 2011, 2019, and 2021. He was also elected state representative in 2020. 

Laughton pleaded guilty to three counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children in November of 2025.

Earlier this week, Laughton’s defense submitted a memorandum requesting he be sentenced to just over 17 years in prison for his crimes. The memorandum describes Laughton as a “complex 42-year-old woman” and refers to him as an “ordained minister who championed civil rights including transgender rights and stood for increased minimum wage and mental health care for college students.”

The memorandum appears to place most, if not all, of the blame for the child sex offenses on Groves, and argues that Laughton should not receive a higher sentence than Groves. It also uses Laughton’s gender identity, mental health challenges, and learning impairments as mitigating factors.

Laughton’s defense includes an assessment by Dr. Joseph Plaud, a clinical forensic psychologist, who reportedly confirmed that he was developmentally disabled. References to a 1999 psychological report were also included, in which the assessing doctor had determined that Laughton’s intelligence quotient was trending downwards towards retardation.

From the defense memorandum submitted by Laughton’s attorney.

While the defense’s sentencing memorandum painted Laughton out to be a victim and attempted to place the majority of the blame on Groves, the prosecution strongly disagreed and noted that Laughton had admitted to “coaxing” Groves into committing the crimes.

“[Laughton] talked extensively throughout their messages about potential or fantasized sexual contact with kids … As demonstrated in the text communications, the defendant’s voice was, to put it mildly, the more prominent one in the ongoing conversation regarding the sexual exploitation of the victims in this case,” the prosecution detailed in its sentencing memorandum, going on to use feminine pronouns for Laughton.

“To be clear: Groves was an active participant and is not a victim. She knew what she was doing was wrong and that, at minimum, her career would be in jeopardy if they were found out. But the defendant’s borderline obsessive focus on sex throughout the weeks of communications that she deleted from her phone demonstrate that she was, in large part, the driver of this conduct.”

The prosecution sought 40 years imprisonment, followed by 5 years of supervised release.

On June 16, Laughton was sentenced to 33 years in prison, eclipsing Groves’ sentence of nearly 22 years.

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