Former Roxbury nanny pleads guilty to child porn charges

A former Boston nanny pleaded guilty on Wednesday to possessing and distributing child pornography following an investigation last year that showed she also discussed sex acts to perform on a baby in online chats.

Stephanie Lak, 37, of Roxbury was sentenced to three years in prison followed by 10 years of probation, WCVB reports. Once released from prison, Lak is prohibited from living with, working with, and being near children.

Lak was arrested and arraigned in April 2021 following a joint investigation by Boston police and the FBI.

Investigators initially acted on a tip sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which led to a probe into an alleged case of child sex abuse involving a Minneapolis child caregiver. That investigation ultimately revealed a connection to Lak.

Through Kik, the online messaging app, Lak discussed sex acts to perform on an infant, officials said.

“The defendant (was) having conversations with someone who is actively sexually abusing his children, and encouraging him to do that and suggesting ways that he should do that,” Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Nicole Poirier said last year.

At the time of Lak’s arrest, authorities had identified two victims: two girls, ages 3 and 5.

Lak was active on the nanny and babysitting marketplace website sittercity.com for several years and as recently as the month before her arrest, officials said last year.

“The defendant initially stated that she did not know the person that shared the child pornography videos, but she then admitted – in a subsequent interview to receiving – and then resending – about 100 files of child pornography via the social media application Kik,” Poirier said Wednesday, WCVB reports.

Prosecutors said if Lak’s case had gone to trial, they planned to introduce evidence showing Lak also sent nonsexual photos of children in her care to someone she was speaking to online.

The conversation between the two was one of “the most grotesque online chats that the commonwealth has ever heard,” prosecutors said, according to WCVB.