Updates on Lebanon, MO sex slave case

4th man changes plea in Missouri sex slave case:

Update: Fourth Man Pleads Guilty in Ozarks Sex Slavery Case:

I’ve previously posted about this story here and here. The heart of the story is that Edward Bagley Sr. of Lebanon, Missouri allegedly kept a mentally challenged woman as a sex slave for 7 years between 2002 and 2009. He first met the woman when she was a 16-year-old runaway. He is accused of torturing her, which included sewing her vagina shut and anally electrocuting her. Bagley would also ‘rent’ the woman out to other men for such things as steaks and cigarettes.

The last update I posted said that two of Bagley’s customers, Dennis Henry and James Noel, had pleaded guilty to the charges against them. Since that time, two more customers, Bradley Cook and Michael Stokes, have also pleaded guilty.

Stokes not only had repeated sex with the victim and tortured her, but he also promoted her at strip clubs and took her to California for a porno mag shoot. He only received five years for his guilty plea. Considering he admitted to electrocuting the victim anally, and vaginally, he should have gotten way more than that.

Cook got 20 years in his plea deal, admitting that he engaged in sex and torture with the victim.

Henry got 15 years in his plea deal for committing sex trafficking by force.

Noel also only got 5 years for torturing the victim.

Bagley and his wife Marilyn have yet to go to trial, which is scheduled for February 15th. If they don’t get life sentences, then there is no justice for victims.

And to all you BDSM aficionados out there, this is not an indictment on your lifestyle choice. We are talking about a woman who was manipulated into believing that she was legally someone’s slave. She was not a willing participant, there was no ‘safe word’. She was the captive of a sadist, and that’s all there is to it.

UPDATE 7/11/2012: The trial for the Bagleys has been pushed back until February 2013.