A St. Lawrence County man has admitted abducting two Amish girls from a farm stand last summer and abusing them in his home, while his girlfriend taped the sex acts. Stephen Howells pled guilty to all 21 counts in a federal indictment, including child pornography, in a Syracuse Courtroom Friday.
It was difficult at times, to listen to a federal prosecutor read through charges against Howells -- descriptions of he and his girlfriend Nicole Vaisey stalking young girls with the intent to kidnap them, and describing Amish girls as "pixies and princesses;" drugging them with pharmaceuticals, like Versed and oxycodone Howells obtained through his job as a nurse; and performing explicit sexual acts on the children, who were sometimes unconscious.
While the kidnapping of the two Amish girls spurred the investigation, Howells admitted abusing six separate children between the ages of five and 11, between December 2012 and August 2014. In most of the cases, federal officials say Vaisey recorded the encounters in couple’s home in Hermon, N.Y. It was those videos that sealed federal investigator’s case, according to U.S. Attorney spokesman John Duncan.
“They were able to get through that encryptions on the computers and recover that evidence and that was key to that indictment and identifying victims, but was key to the evidence you heard recited in court,” said Duncan.
Howells spoke in a loud clear voice in court, when he told Judge Glenn Suddaby that “for the most part, the allegations are true.”
He’ll remain in custody until his September sentencing, and ultimately could spend the rest of his life in prison, if maximum sentences on all the charges are added up. He also could testify in Vaisey’s trial, scheduled to begin next month. Vaisey’s attorney in the past has said Vaisey was in an abusive and submissive relationship with Howells. The two also face state charges.
Duncan, speaking outside the courthouse, said it’s hard to believe these kinds of incidents can happen.
“It’s probably more widespread than we would like to think it is. This morning people listening in the court, the acts that were involved with all these young children seem beyond comprehension. Yet in fact, they occurred.”
