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Nude photos of teenage girl lead to 7-year term

He met the 14-year-old girl at a fast-food restaurant, according to court documents. Within a week, she was working as a prostitute out of a Norfolk hotel room.

But it wasn't the sex that ultimately sent 34-year-old Bacardi Wright to prison Wednesday. It was the naked photos of the girl police found on his cellphone last June.

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A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Wright to seven years on one count of possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty last year after prosecutors agreed to drop sex-trafficking and child pornography production charges.

Police busted Wright - whom the girl described to investigators as her boyfriend - with the help of the Polaris Project, a national resource center for human-trafficking tips. An anonymous caller said Wright might be operating a prostitution business in Norfolk. The caller directed investigators to an Internet advertisement that appeared to feature an underage girl.

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Detectives called to set up a meeting. When an undercover officer arrived June 13 at a hotel on Military Highway, the girl negotiated a deal: $70 for 10 minutes.

Police arrested Wright outside the hotel.

The girl told police Wright did not know her real age, court documents said. She said she told him she was 19.

The girl also said she was not forced into prostitution. At the same time, she said Wright kept all of the profits and paid for the hotel rooms, documents said.

A search of Wright's phone found 11 images of the girl engaging in sexually explicit activity, documents said.

Scott Daugherty, 757-222-5221, scott.daugherty@pilotonline.com


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