Texan jailed for life over grooming children for sex shows in swingers’ club

A car body shop worker was sentenced to life in prison in the US for grooming children as young as five to perform in sex shows at a small-town Texas swingers’ club.

Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly, 41, showed no emotion after the verdict.

Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding him guilty of engaging in organised criminal activity, then took just 15 minutes to sentence him to prison for life.

Defence lawyers had sought a suspended sentence of less than 10 years, so Kelly could be placed on probation.

Prosecutors said that Kelly was a member of the so-called Mineola Swinger’s Club, an accusation he denied.

They said Kelly helped set up a “kindergarten” where children learned to dance provocatively. To help children perform at the club, prosecutors say they were given Vicodin- like drugs the adults passed off as “silly pills”. Vicodin is a derivative of codeine.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Joe Murphy accused Kelly of having sexual contact with five children tied to the case who, he said, showed signs of sexual abuse.

Kelly’s defence lawyer, Thad Davidson, questioned why the children did not remember details about the club and why they were not examined by medical staff trained to detect sexual abuse.

Davidson said the lead investigator had little experience of handling sex crimes, did not conduct a thorough investigation and was improperly influenced by the foster mother of three of the children, Margie Cantrell, who brought the original complaint.

Kelly told the trial he had no knowledge of “silly pills” and never made children do any kind of sexual dancing or had touched them inappropriately. He said he had never even been to the Mineola Swinger’s Club.