Beyond sick

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland couple arranged to trade marijuana for the chance to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, the authorities said Tuesday.

Federal agents arrested Christopher Dudley, 27, and Rhea Hamm, 22, in Woodland, Wash., where they were to meet the girl — a fictitious character created by an agent who met Dudley in an Internet chat room.

Dudley and Hamm were charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a minor.
Special agents made the arrests as part of an undercover Internet sting designed to catch online sexual predators, said Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Senior Agent James Mooney conducted the sting last month in a chat room known to trade in images of young girls engaging in sex, according to court papers. Mooney posed as the father of a 5-year-old girl.

In a series of e-mail chats with the agent, Dudley allegedly agreed to pay the father so that he and Hamm could perform oral sex on the child and take photos.

Firing squad, lethal injection, hanging. . . ?