A babysitter from San Diego broke down in tears in court as she was handed 100 years to life in prison for delivering children to her paedophile boyfriend.
Brittney Mae Lyon, 31, offered babysitting services online, saying she was particularly interested in working with children with special needs.
She would sexually abuse the children entrusted to her and hand them to her boyfriend, Samuel Cabrera, 31, who would film himself molesting them.
The victims – some of whom were autistic and non-verbal – were between three and seven years old.
Lyon pleaded guilty to two counts of a lewd act upon a child and two counts of a forcible lewd act upon a child in May.
She also admitted allegations of kidnapping, residential burglary and sexually assaulting multiple victims.
Her crimes were discovered in 2016, when a seven-year-old girl told her mother about the abuse, who then went to police, the the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Lyon had been a long-term friend of the family and babysat for them.
A police investigation led from Lyon to Cabrera, then 22, and both he and Lyon were arrested.
While Lyon’s case was stalled by Covid courtroom closures and changes of attorney, Cabrera went on trial in 2019 charged with 35 felonies, including multiple counts of child molestation, kidnapping, burglary and conspiracy.
He was convicted by a North County jury in just two hours.
Cabrera was sentenced to eight terms of life in prison and an additional 300 years.
He will not be eligible for parole, Fox News reports.
The police investigation uncovered a double-locked box in Cabrera’s car, containing six computer hard drives with hundreds of videos of him abusing children, often filmed with multiple cameras to capture different angles.
Some were drugged, and one was a seven-year-old with autism who was non-verbal and could not dress or bathe herself.
Prosecutors said many victims were unknown, forcing them to track down families who had hired Lyon as a babysitter.
Parents of three victims had hired Lyon through a babysitting website on which she had ‘touted her interest in working with special needs children,’ the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said.
One mother found out her three-year-old daughter was among the victims after spotting a news story about Lyon and Cabrera’s crimes and reaching out to police.
Lyon and Cabrera met in highschool.
He initially asked her to secretly record women in changing rooms and then convinced her to bring children in her care to his home.
Prosecutors said Lyon participated in some of the abuse.
At her sentencing, the Vista Courthouse in San Diegoheard a statement from Lyon, read by her defense attorney.
It read: ‘For nine years, I’ve thought about what I would say today. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no words that would make any of the harm and trauma I’ve caused any better.
‘The words “I’m sorry” are far too simple for the amount of trauma I’ve caused and the amount of regret that I feel.’
Parents of the victims also spoke in court, with one mother saying Lyon ‘used her credentials’ from studying child development to ‘lull us into a state of comfort so we didn’t feel like we had to ask a lot of questions about what Brittney did with our daughter when they were together.’
Another said she discovered that a special trips for her daughter to play were actually ‘molestation sessions’.
Some of the victims also voiced concern that Lyon, while serving a 100-year sentence, is eligible for parole.
A California law change now allows for ‘elder parole’.
Elder inmates who have served at least 20 years of their sentence can petition for a parole hearing when they turn 50.
One mother said: ‘It’s a slap in the face to drag us through this field of broken glass for 10 years only to give Brittney a break.’
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has continued to push for sex offenders to be excluded from the new rule.
District Attorney Summer Stephan said, in a news release after Lyon’s sentencing: ‘The age of 50 is hardly “elderly,” particularly in the realm of child molesters, who need only be in a position of trust and power to access and sexually abuse children.’
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