A couple who sexually abused and kidnapped two Amish girls last year in New York have been sentenced to lifetime prison terms, according to The New York Times. Nicole Vaisey, 26, and her boyfriend Stephen Howells, 40, were sentenced on Thursday for the kidnapping and sexual exploitation of six children in total, with victims being drugged and recorded during the sex acts, according to CBS News.
The pair were arrested in August 2014 after kidnapping the girls from their family farm in St. Lawrence County, abusing them, and releasing them the next day, according to The New York Times.
Judge Glen Suddaby denied any credit for the speed with which Vaisey and Howell freed the girls, accepting the theory of the prosecution that the children would have been kept hostage and forced to become sex slaves if the couple had finished their project of a soundproof cell, according to NBC News.
The judge also rejected Vaisey's claim that she was under the control of Howell as a sex slave, although Howell repeatedly claimed he was the main perpetrator of the acts, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
"The evil that I've done is my own," Howells told the courts according to CBS News, claiming that he took advantage of Vaisey and "twisted her around" for sexual gratification.
"You are the threat that parents worry about every day... You are the nightmare that never goes away for children." Suddaby told Howells in court, condemning the abuse of power that Howells used as a registered nurse to acquire the drugs for their victims, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Defense attorneys requested shorter sentences that would result in the eventual release of Vaisey and Howells, noting that both had been sexually abused themselves, according to CBS News.
However, the judge gave the maximum possible terms to both perpetrators - 580 years for Howells and 300 years for Vaisey. More sentencing will follow for the state kidnapping charges, according to NBC News.
