By ANDY GARDNER

HERMON -- The couple who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually abusing children including two Amish sisters will be sentenced in federal court on Thursday, according to Assistant United States Attorney Richard Southwick.

Stephen M. Howells II, 39, of Hermon pleaded guilty May 8 to all 21 counts of a federal indictment charging him with child exploitation offenses. He could face more than 500 years in prison.

Six days later, co-defendant Nicole F. Vaisey, 26, Hermon, admitted to a 10-count indictment accusing her of child exploitation offenses. She faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the FBI.

Howells pled guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography, producing child pornography and possessing child pornography. The conspiracy count and 15 additional counts relate to Howells’ sexual abuse of six separate children, ranging in age from 5 to 11, and his filming of that abuse on 16 dates between December 2012 and August 2014. Howells is charged alone in six of those counts, according to United States Attorney Richard Hartunian.

Vaisey is also charged with conspiracy and nine of the production counts. Howells also pled guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography, separate and apart from the children and images charged in the first 16 counts of the superseding indictment. These counts relate to numerous image and video files Howells collected from the internet and downloaded to each of five separate hard drives from computers that were recovered from his residence. These images and video files also involve prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12, Hartunian said.

Beginning in 2013, Vaisey and Howells conspired to engage minors in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Howells obtained drugs through his work as a registered nurse at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and used the substances to sedate the child victims, girls ranging in age from 5 to 11 years old. Vaisey arranged for a girl born in 2006 to spend the night with them, and they used that child to engage in sexually explicit conduct. They produced child pornography depicting that conduct, on six separate dates from Sept. 7, 2013 through May 31, 2014. On several of the dates, Vaisey filmed Howells sexually abusing the child. On two of the dates, Vaisey also sexually abused the child, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Howells arranged for a girl born in 2003 to spend the night with them, and the child was used to engage in sexually explicit conduct. They produced child pornography depicting that conduct on Nov. 17, 2013 and Dec. 15, 2013. On both dates, Vaisey both filmed Howells sexually abusing the child and sexually abused the child herself, the FBI said.

In 2014, Vaisey and Howells together developed and planned a scheme to kidnap minor children for use in sexually explicit conduct and for the purpose of producing child pornography. Each of them made trips to observe and locate possible children to abduct, including Amish girls. On Aug. 13, 2014, Vaisey and Howells went to an Amish farm stand to abduct two girls, ages 11 and 6, by pretending to be customers and using a dog to get the children to the car. Howell forced the children into the car and drugged one of them, and Vaisey drove off. Howells sexually assaulted the children as Vaisey watched and then filmed.

Vaisey faces imprisonment for at least 15 years, and up to 30 years, on the conspiracy charge, as well as on each of the substantive exploitation counts. The court has the discretion to run all of these sentences concurrently or consecutively to one another. Vaisey will also be required to serve a term of supervised release of a minimum of five years and up to life to follow any term of incarceration, and will be required to register as a sex offender, according to the FBI.

The St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI investigated this case, with assistance from the New York State Police. Assistant United States Attorneys Lisa Fletcher and Tamara Thomson are prosecuting.

The case is 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, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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, according to the FBI. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.