Lexington woman sentenced to 25 years on federal charges of producing child porn
A Lexington woman who was abused as a child has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for making child porn, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Paige Danielle Cagle, 26, was sentenced after pleading guilty to using a minor to engage in explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She pleaded guilty in March.
Cagle was arrested after a man in Missouri went to a sheriff’s office and admitted that he had child pornography made by Cagle, according to court records. The man, Levi Erwin, said there was video of Cagle abusing a 2-year-old, according to court records.
Cagle was found by investigators in Lexington, according to court records. She admitted to law enforcement multiple times that she sexually abused a minor child from the age of 9 months old to about 18 months old, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She also admitted that she had other child pornography material that involved girls from the age of 4 to 13 years old, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“The defendant’s production of child pornography was particularly heinous, and the sentence imposed was well justified by the facts of this case,” Robert M. Duncan, Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said in a statement.
Cagle used the online file-sharing service Dropbox to share the videos she made and to receive videos from others.
A former Missouri resident, Cagle admitted to making two videos in Missouri and three in Clark County Kentucky, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Court records stated that Cagle said she was abused as a child, and “she said she felt herself wanting to continue the cycle.”
Cagle said she wanted to get help and was trying to stop viewing and making child pornography, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. She said some of her family members were aware of the pornography and it had caused problems with her family.
Cagle is required by federal law to serve 85 percent of her prison sentence, and she’ll be under parole supervision for the rest of her life after release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 2:48 PM.