Former Nashua State Rep. Laughton Sentenced To 33 Years In Prison In Child Exploitation Case

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Former state Rep. Stacie Laughton, D-Nashua, is heading to prison for the next 33 years for convictions on three counts of sexual exploitation of children, incidents that involved child sex abuse images taken at a Massachusetts day care.

Laughton was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston to 400 months behind bars. Two weeks earlier, his accomplice and girlfriend, Lindsay Groves, got 22 years. Groves worked at a Tyngsborough day care and used her position to photograph the children she supervised. The victims were as young as 3 years old, according to court records.

Laughton, born Barry Laughton, was the first self-described “transgender” person elected to New Hampshire’s legislature in 2012. Elected three times, he never served a complete term, and he continues to be an embarrassment for the state Democratic Party, whose chairman, Ray Buckley, once declared Laughton part of “the backbone of the Granite State.”

Earlier this week, Laughton’s service in the House was referenced during a news conference urging Gov. Kelly Ayotte to sign legislation allowing biological men to be banned from some women’s spaces. Female House members recounted having Laughton, who claimed to identify as a woman, use their restroom with them.

Prosecutors in the sex crimes case described Laughton as a manipulative, aggressive, and entitled person who uses people to get whatever he wants. That behavior extended to his sometime girlfriend Groves, who authorities say Laughton manipulated and controlled for years before the child sex abuse case.

Groves is a mentally challenged woman who has lived with her parents in Hudson her whole life. Groves has an undisclosed neurological condition and suffered bullying and loneliness as a child, according to her attorneys Jessica Thrall and Eliza Jimenez. When Groves fell under Laughton’s spell, Laughton began stealing from her through credit card fraud, according to court records.

Eventually, Laughton started exploiting Groves sexually and persuaded her to take photos of children at her day care. Groves shared the photos with Laughton as part of a degenerate sex chat they conducted by text message. Their depraved sexual texts included topics such as child rape, according to court records.

Groves used her position at a Massachusetts daycare to take explicit photos of the children she was supposed to be watching. Those photos were then shared by text message between the couple, who discussed raping children and hiding their crimes from the parents in thousands of grotesque notes.

Court records give a hint of the horrific Groves and Laughton relationship. In one text message, Laughton said there was nothing wrong with sexually abusing children.

“Oh, I know, but I just don’t wanna get in trouble. I mean, I want to do what we want to do because we like it and we approve of it, but others think this is wrong. Lots of parents don’t like people touching their kids, and it is against the law …” Laughton wrote in one exchange.

In another message, Laughton seems to admit to raping a child with Groves.

“I was asking because I know we’ve had some back-and-forth, and I know we initially said we do nothing with kids ever again, and you said you were afraid that if we had kids they would go back and tell the parents the same with the kids you work with,” Laughton texted Groves.

When Groves finally stood up to Laughton in 2023 and broke off their relationship, Laughton started telling people in court-ordered therapy that Groves was a pedophile and even reported her to Nashua police, according to court records.

Laughton deleted the incriminating text messages from his cellphone but was apparently unaware that investigators could still prove the crime with Groves’ phone.

Both Laughton and Groves were soon under arrest and federally charged with their crimes. After an extended court process to determine Groves’ competency, the couple pleaded guilty late last year.

It’s unlikely Groves will ever see Laughton again. Laughton has been held in prison facilities for men since the 2023 arrest, despite his avowed gender identity.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.