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Man gets 20 years in sexual torture case

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A Missouri man who authorities said tortured a young woman for years after making her his sadomasochist sex slave pleaded guilty to a related Internet charge.

Edward Bagley Sr., 45, of Lebanon agreed in court Tuesday to a 20-year prison sentence as part of his guilty plea to a charge that he used the Internet to entice a minor for illegal sex. Bagley, who was to have gone to trial next month, admitted the government could prove he had subjected the victim to harsh treatment for years.

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Prosecutors accused Bagley in 2010 of abusing his victim for much of the previous decade, calling the allegations "among the most horrific ever prosecuted" in the federal court.

As the woman, then 23, was recovering from a heart attack suffered during a 2009 torture session, federal investigators pieced together the aspects of her relationship with Bagley. A 16-year-old runaway in 2002, she moved into Bagley's trailer home, and at 18 signed a "sex slavery contract." For the next five years Bagley allegedly tortured and mutilated the woman with what the indictment described as "flogging, whipping, shocking, choking, piercing, sewing" and "stapling."

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Defense lawyers contended the relationship was consensual and part of a bondage, domination and sadomasochistic lifestyle.

Bagley was initially charged with five other co-defendants, including his wife, each of whom pleaded guilty in their part to enslave the unnamed victim, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported Tuesday.

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