A federal judge sentenced a Lauderdale County couple to hundreds of years in prison for sexually abusing a minor child in their custody to produce images of child pornography.
Officials said Patricia Ayers is sentenced to 1,590 years in prison. Her husband, Matthew Ayers, was sentenced to 750 years in prison.
Those sentences are the maximum penalties for each count.
Patricia Ayers pleaded guilty to 53 counts of producing child pornography and Matthew Ayers pleaded guilty to 25 counts of production.
“I have been on the bench since 1998, and this is the worst case I have personally dealt with, including murders.” U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler told the defendants. “You robbed this child of her childhood and her soul, and a maximum sentence is the only sentence appropriate.”
In June, the coupled pleaded guilty to nearly 100 counts of child producing child pornography.
In their plea agreements both Ayers acknowledged they took photographs of the child engaged in lewd and lascivious poses, and that they each engaged in sexual acts with the child that the other adult photographed.
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