RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — An Air Force master sergeant pleaded guilty at a court-martial Tuesday to sexually abusing two girls and amassing a stash of child pornography that included digital images of infants.
Master Sgt. Bart Lipscomb, a maintenance superintendent with the Ramstein-based 86th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, admitted to sexually abusing one of the girls dozens of times over a four-year period. He apologized for sexually abusing her and her best friend.
“There’s no excuse for what I did to you,” he said in a tearful statement.
A military judge sentenced Lipscomb to 19 years in a military prison, a dishonorable discharge, a reduction to the lowest pay grade and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. A plea bargain, however, means he will not serve more than 11 years in jail.
The sentencing ended a full day of graphic testimony that, at times, had members of the viewing gallery in tears.
From the time the girl was 8, Lipscomb said, he molested her as much as four times a week.
Although Lipscomb said he tried to stop, the abuse continued, and the abuse became more frequent the older she got. On at least one occasion, he tried to use handcuffs on the girl, now 13.
Air Force prosecutor Capt. Kimberly Quendensley said Lipscomb turned the girl into a “sexual slave.”
Every time he abused her, Quendensley said, “he took away her innocence.”
The abuse continued until the girl’s best friend told her mother, an Air Force technical sergeant based at Ramstein at the time, that Lipscomb also molested her. The 14-year-old girl testified during the court-martial that Lipscomb fondled her last year.
Her mother told the judge that her daughter didn’t admit to what happened until she began having behavior problems soon after the molestation. That’s when she and her daughter went to the police.
Under questioning from Air Force criminal investigators, Lipscomb confessed to the abuse. Seizure of his home computer, zip drives and compact discs would lead to a large stash of child pornography.
Investigators found 1,500 digital images and movies of child pornography on Lipscomb’s home computer. Some of the pictures included photographs of infants.
Before sentencing, Lipscomb admitted he needed rehabilitation and didn’t know exactly why he turned to abusing the girls.
“Why I chose to do something so horrible ... I’ll never understand,” Lipscomb said.
Quendensley argued that he should serve no less than 15 years behind bars.
“No young child is safe from him,” she said.
