Man Keeps Stepdaughter As Sex Slave For Nearly Two Decades, Gets Life In Prison

A man in Oklahoma convicted last year of abducting his juvenile stepdaughter and holding her captive for nearly 20 years to fulfill his sexual needs was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.

Henri Michelle Piette, 65, was arrested in connection with Rosalynn McGinnis’ kidnapping in 1997. He was charged for kidnapping, traveling with intent to engage in sexual activity with a juvenile, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Oklahoma said in a statement.

McGinnis, then 12, was kidnapped from Poteau where she lived with her mother, who was in a relationship with Piette. McGinnis gave birth to at least nine children as a result of repetitive sexual abuse. The first child was born in 2000 when the victim was 15 years old. Piette moved the victim multiple times throughout the U.S. and Mexico over the course of her captivity. He also forced her to alter her identity by dying her hair, wearing glasses and changing names, according to the statement.

“Life in prison is a sentence the law reserves for the most serious offenders – offenders like Henri Michelle Piette. For 20 years he inflicted extreme physical and emotional abuse on the victim and her children. For 20 years she feared for her and her children’s lives,” Attorney Brian J. Kuester said.

The federal bureau of investigation was notified by United States Consular General Offices in Nogales, Mexico, in 2016, after the victim managed to escape with her children and reported to the latter.

Piette’s sentence, a federal case, was not eligible for parole. He was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine combined with $50,067 compensation to the victim, NBC News reported.