St. Louis County woman admits prostituting minor

ST. LOUIS – A woman from St. Louis County, Missouri on Friday admitted promoting the prostitution of a minor online.

Carrie Little, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of coercion or enticement of a minor. Little’s trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

As part of her plea, Little admitted that beginning at least as early as 2018, she recruited women and had others recruit women to engage in prostitution. Among those recruited was a minor female. Little provided the victim with a place to live and placed sexually suggestive and/or explicit photos of the minor that were taken with Little’s phone in online advertisements for commercial sex. Little took calls to arrange sexual encounters and to arrange the price. After the encounters, men paid Little or the victim, who was required to give the majority of the money to Little.

Little is scheduled to be sentenced November 26. The charge carries a penalty of at least 10 years in prison, with a maximum of life.

The Saint Louis County Human Trafficking Taskforce investigated the case. Crisis Aid International and the International Institute of Saint Louis assisted victims associated with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dianna Edwards and Nathan Chapman are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.