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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Australian man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after authorities say he and his partner allowed at least eight others to have sex with their young adopted son for money.
The 36-year-old man is a resident of Queensland and is not being identified by The Associated Press to protect his son's identity. The man pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and to conspiracy to possess child pornography and was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, the Indianapolis Star reported ( http://indy.st/1hIDztq).
His partner, a 42-year-old American who had been living in Australia, was sentenced in June to the maximum 40-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sexually exploit a child.
According to court documents, the two men became romantically involved in the late 1990s and began trying to adopt an infant boy.
The men had been living with the boy in California, where they were able to use falsified records to legalize an adoption, according to court records obtained by The Associated Press. Court documents also said the men eventually paid $8,000 to adopt the boy from a woman whose husband had abandoned her.
The boy was between the ages of 2 and 6 when at least eight men had sex with him.
The men were arrested last year in Los Angeles.
U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett says the case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis because images of the sex acts involving the young boy were found on the computer of an Anderson man in a larger child exploitation and pornography investigation.
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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
