MANCHESTER, N.H.- Former State Rep. Stacie Marie Laughton is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday in Massachusetts after pleading guilty to child sexual abuse charges.

Laughton, who was born Barry Laughton and represented Nashau in the New Hampshire House of Representatives is facing up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty this past November to three counts of sexual exploitation of children.

According to court documents the 41-year-old Laughton exchanged more than 1,000 texts with his former romantic partner Linday Groves,40, of Hudson that included discussion about, and the transfer of explicit photographs that Groves took of kids while working at a daycare in Tyngsborough Massachusetts, including at least four images that authorities say were sexually explicit images of children and were between the ages of 3 and 5.

Laughton’s sentence comes after Groves was sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty of sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography.