Trans Lawmaker Pleads Guilty to Child Exploitation

A disgraced transgender lawmaker admitted to child sex offences after his girlfriend sent him explicit photos of young children who attended a daycare she worked at.

New Hampshire state Rep. Stacie Laughton pleaded guilty in federal court Monday in Boston to charges including sexual exploitation of children after he asked his then girlfriend, Lindsay Groves, to send the disturbing photos, officials said.

Laughton's plea comes a month after Groves confessed to taking the images of children before sending them to the 41-year-old Democrat in 2023.

Groves, 40, was working at Creative Minds, a daycare in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts when she took nude images of napping children and sent them to Laughton, her boyfriend at the time.

Laughton received those images while in office as the state and country's first-ever transgender person elected to state legislature.

Authorities said the photos - accompanied with thousands of illicit discussions about them - were taken between May 2022 and June 2023, and contained at least four sexually explicit images of three to five-year-old children.

Laughton, a biological male, is set to be sentenced in February along with Groves. They could each face up to three decades behind bars.

The Nashua Police Department began an investigation into the pair after receiving a tip off.

Detectives then looked into the then allegations and Laughton was promptly arrested in June 2023.

According to the affidavit, Groves 'used natural bathroom breaks for the children,' such as 'routine diaper pull-up changes prior to naptime ... to take multiple photos of the prepubescent children in a private bathroom and then sent the photos to the (former intimate partner) via text message.'

Their communications also included 2,500 illicit discussions.

Chaos erupted in the courtroom when Groves appeared before a judge and parents of the victims for the first time in June 2023.

While he was led away at the end of the hearing an unidentified tearful mother screamed at Groves from the gallery, shouting: 'I want to f***ing kill that b****!'

The woman added: 'You need to rot in jail!'.

This is not Laughton's first run-in with the law as he has faced multiple charges over the years.

His lengthy criminal history dates back to 2002, when he was arrested for domestic violence/criminal mischief in that year and a sexual assault charge against a woman in 2003, when Laughton was still identifying as a male.

In 2015, he was arrested for making a bomb threat against the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.

In 2021, he was arrested once again for misusing the state's 911 texting system.

Despite his criminal past, Laughton still ran for a second term in 2022 and was elected to represent Nashua, New Hampshire.

However, once again, he was unable to take office having been jailed on stalking charges.

Laughton has blamed her his criminal behavior on mental illness and untreated conditions.

He expressed remorse for his past crimes and stated that their actions were completely out of character.

'I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated for a long time, and I didn't have medication,' Laughton shared in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader after being arrested for making a bomb threat.

'I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, and it was totally out of character for me. I have put a lot behind me, and I never thought I would do this in a million years.'

When contacted by the Daily Mail for comment, Derege Demissie, Laughton's attorney said his client has 'accepted responsibility for his role.'

'Our client reported the crime to the Nashua Police Dept and fully cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the crime,' Demissie added.