A Husband And Wife Get Prison For Filming Themselves Sexually Abusing Children And Babies

“These are two of the most wicked criminals in Texas history,” US Attorney John Bash said.

A Texas couple was sentenced to 60 years each in prison for filming themselves sexually assaulting at least 25 children, some as young as 8 months old, and producing child pornography.

Sarah Rashelle Almaguer and her husband, Christopher Almaguer, pleaded guilty in October to sexually exploiting children and creating child porn after authorities found that they had uploaded explicit videos of themselves sexually assaulting children, including babies, onto Facebook in December 2017.

“To me this is the most significant case we’ve prosecuted since I became US Attorney,” John Bash said in a statement, adding that the 27-year-olds were "two of the most wicked criminals in Texas history."

The Secret Service began investigating the couple in February 2018 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted the Texas attorney general's office about a tip from Facebook.

According to court documents, the company reported a user for uploading a video that looked like child pornography. Investigators traced it back to the profile of Sarah Almaguer and then found 15 clips showing the adults sexually assaulting children, including infants. Officials believe there are at least 25 victims, ranging in age from 8 months to 14 years old.

The Almaguers, who have five children and live in the central Texas town of Killeen, were "serial child abusers" who assaulted members of their own family, as well as kids they babysat, knew from church, and who lived in their neighborhood, federal prosecutors said.

"The nature of the abuse was unimaginable," Bash said. "They also made videos of the children’s torture and shared them."

US District Judge Alan Albright also sentenced Christopher Almaguer's 25-year-old brother, Paul Perez, to 20 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release for his involvement. Perez pleaded guilty in September to receiving images and videos from his brother and sister-in-law, which showed the couple sexually abusing children. He also said he did produce videos himself.

Secret Service agents arrested the couple after searching their home last February and finding "numerous videos containing child pornography" in the video folder of Sarah's phone. During her interview, Sarah told investigators that she had an old Facebook account that she let her brother-in-law use.

She also said that she has "had a long-term, secret, sexual relationship" with Perez "that involved multiple productions and distributions of child pornography with children as young as six-months-old," according to court documents.

Her brother-in-law would ask her to "to have sexual contact with children and then send him the videos and/or pictures through Facebook Messenger." Sarah would also traffic the explicit content from one of her profiles to the other so Perez could log in and access it, she said.

According to prosecutors, the two Facebook accounts hosted thousands of exchanges, the majority of which "pertain to sexual activity with children and the production of child pornography."

In addition to their prison sentences, Albright ordered the Almaguers and Perez to pay $10,000 to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Fund.

Authorities don't know how many others the couple sent the disturbing content to, where they uploaded the videos, or how many people have viewed them, Bash noted. As a result, he said, "these kids’ suffering and abuse will continue for their entire lives because those images will be continually shared online."

Skip to footer