An Alabama woman was sentenced to 219 years in prison on Thursday on charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and other charges in an incestuous sex ring that went on for years.
Wendy Holland, 35, and 11 other people, mostly family members, were accused of sexually abusing children and exchanging their own children for sex, the Associate Press reported. At her sentencing in Baldwin Council Circuit court, a judge handed down the maximum sentence but added Holland deserved more years behind bars.
The alleged incestuous ring involved Holland and her late husband Donnie, said to be the group's leader, and the couple's 22-year-old son Donald Paul Holland Jr. He is currently facing charges of rape, incest and sexual abuse, the AP reported.
Arrests were made after one of the alleged victims, 19-year-old Brittney Wood, disappeared in 2012. That's around the same time Holland's husband was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in what officials ruled a suicide.
Donnie Holland was Wood's uncle. Her whereabouts are still unknown and she is presumed dead, according to the AP.
A friend of the family, William Brownlee, was also charged and sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison. Two more uncles and a brother of Wood's pleaded guilty for their roles in the sex ring.
Prosecutors said Holland, who was found guilty last month, must serve at least 50 years of her sentence before she is eligible for parole. Holland faces additional charges for other alleged victims, the AP reported.
"I was a little girl being held down and raped," one underage female victim wrote in a letter read to the court. She explained how she lived in constant fear of being abused and is now left traumatized and unable to trust others.
"The people who were supposed to protect me were the ones hurting me," the victim wrote.
