Couple 'trained child to be dominatrix'

Prosecutors have accused a couple of training the woman’s 12-year-old daughter to be a dominatrix, selling sexual services and photographing some of the acts.

US Attorney John Wood said the case was unusual in that a parent has been charged with the commercial sex trafficking of his or her own child. The girl is now 20.

Todd Barkau, 35, of New York state, and a 44-year-old woman face seven charges.

They once lived together in Blue Springs, Missouri, where the sex business was allegedly run.

“Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix,” Mr Wood said at a news conference in Kansas City.

Barkau was arrested near Niagara Falls and had an initial court appearance on Saturday in Buffalo, New York.

The mother was arrested on Friday in Dallas, Texas, and was due to appear at the Northern District of Texas court yesterday.

Don Ledford, a spokesman for Wood, said as far as he knew neither defendant had been assigned attorneys.

The indictment says Barkau began training the girl in 2000 when she was 12 and forced her to engage in sex acts with him and other men. According to the indictment, he also had the girl watch pornography on the internet as a teaching tool.

Barkau is accused of creating a business out of the couple’s Missouri home when the girl was 14 and marketing her as a 19-to-20-year-old dominatrix on the internet for about two years.

The mother is charged with encouraging and participating in the venture, the indictment says.

Prosecutors will also seek €50,000 the couple is accused of having made through sex trafficking, Mr Wood said.