« Registry offers an early warning | Main | Potential Victim Comes Forward In Sex Assault Case »
March 23, 2005
Woman pleads guilty in child-sex case
Mechanicsburg couple posted encounters online
CARLISLE - A Mechanicsburg woman pleaded guilty yesterday in Cumberland County Court to engaging in sex acts with a 5-year-old girl and transmitting photos of the encounter over the Internet.
Patricia Newton, 39, of the 100 block of East Green Street, pleaded to felony counts of sexual abuse of children and aggravated indecent sexual assault before Judge Kevin A. Hess.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Geoffrey McInroy said Newton and her husband, Henry Newton, 35, performed sex acts with children and used a Web camera to transmit the images over the Internet.
Patricia Newton stood quietly before Hess, only nodding and whispering "yes" when he asked if she understood why she was in court and the terms of the plea agreement.
McInroy said Newton's plea agreement carries a sentence of 21/2 to 5 years in state prison. Hess is expected to sentence Newton in May.
Henry Newton has pleaded guilty to felony charges of allowing a child to be photographed while performing a sex act and illegal possession of child pornography. He is to be sentenced next month, McInroy said.
The charges stem from a search warrant served last August by local police, U.S. Postal Service inspectors and agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Newtons were identified after a customs agent in Indianapolis received information from a "cooperating defendant," arrest records state.
Arrest documents state that Patricia Newton admitted being in the room while a child performed oral sex on her husband. She also admitted using the Web cam to transmit the images over the Internet, arrest documents state.
She also admitted that she had one child perform a sex act on her, and that her husband had intercourse with and sodomized one of the children, the documents state.
Posted by Nealus at March 23, 2005 07:02 PM
