A paedophile couple who raped their two-year-old daughter and plotted to rape their unborn baby have been jailed for life.
Gerrad Coddington, 25, and Christina Nelson-Coddington, 29, of Pauls Valley in Oklahoma, were handed whole life terms for sex crimes against children on Monday. They will never be given the chance to apply for parole.
The court heard how the parents handcuffed, beat and raped their 2-year-old daughter, and shared plans to do the same to their unborn baby in online messages.
They were sentenced by Judge Leah Edwards for 29 child sex crimes including rape, child abuse, incest and manufacturing child sex abuse images.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter called the Coddingtons’ crimes the worst he has ever seen.
He said: “These two individuals engaged in horrifying acts of abuse and violence with innocent children… The actions of these two individuals, with regard to the children who were subjected to these horrific acts, unconscionable, unforgivable.”
Hunter added: “These are evil people who presented a danger to society. I commend Judge Edwards’ decision to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I applaud the investigators with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the investigator in my office with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the attorneys who worked on this case to achieve a successful result.”
The couple were arrested in June this year after sharing some of the vile images on Facebook. They were spotted by moderators, who tipped off FBI investigators, News9 reported. Bureau specialists then homed in on the couple, and uncovered more than 6,000 pages of incriminating communications between them.
The Coddingtons’ lodger Trista Hale Stratton was among those stunned to hear about allegations after their June arrest.
She told KFOR: “I don’t know what to think. They’re my family. ‘They’re great people. They’ll both give you the shirt off their back.”
