Warning: This story deals with child sex abuse. Read More
Moments after Madrano, 43, spoke to court, Mosman said he had “never” seen a person who pleaded guilty “show less acceptance of responsibility for that crime.”
Warning: This story deals with child sex abuse.
The Oregon podcaster who groomed and kidnapped an Edmonton girl — taking her across the border in the trunk of his car — is set to begin a sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Noah Madrano, 43, pleaded guilty in January to two U.S. felony counts for the 2022 abduction of the then-13-year-old girl. He remains in custody and faces decades behind bars.
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Sentencing is taking place at the Oregon U.S. District Court before Senior United States District Judge Michael Mosman.
Madrano admitted to meeting the victim online, grooming her for a year and posting sexual images of her online.
Madrano travelled from Oregon to Edmonton on May 31, 2022, where he met the victim and sexually abused her in a hotel. He took video of the abuse, telling the victim to state her age for the camera.
Madrano returned to Edmonton on June 24, 2022, and found the girl outside her middle school. Over the next seven days, he hid her in a hotel room and “repeatedly” sexually abused her. On July 1, 2022, he took her across the U.S.-Canada border in British Columbia in the trunk of his car.
Madrano returned to Oregon City, where he again took the girl to a hotel to sexually abuse her. Law enforcement raided the hotel on July 2, 2022.
In addition to the sexual abuse, Madrano was accused by state attorneys of using the Edmonton girl’s voice in his podcast on Portland community radio station KBOO. Prosecutors claimed he recorded a “political satire” skit in which he claims to have obtained an audio recording of Florida Republican representative and failed justice department nominee Matt Gaetz “having phone sex with an underage girl.”
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The hosts laugh and play a two-minute-and-25-second recording in which a man believed to be Madrano has a sexually explicit conversation with the girl. The podcast was uploaded 11 days before the victim’s disappearance and subsequently deleted. It was not mentioned in the federal plea agreement.
Madrano was denied bail in November 2022. During that hearing, a state prosecutor said Madrano’s parents were largely paying for his lifestyle as a community radio host and owner of a production company, Power T Productions. The name of the company was included in title cards for some of the child sex abuse material Madrano recorded, prosecutors said.
More to come.
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