A poverty-stricken Oklahoma girl turned unwitting child sex star is trying to turn the tables on the New York man she accused of grooming and raping her — demanding $150,000 for every one of the hundreds of risqué photos and videos of her that he allegedly posted online.
Audrey Burns was just 14 and desperately trying to avoid homelessness when she began modeling to earn money, after her mother was seriously injured in a car accident.
“It was rough,” Burns, now 29 and a pregnant, single mother of three. “This was the summer of my eighth-grade year. I didn’t want to start high school in a shelter and my mom couldn’t come home from the hospital in a shelter. So I had to do something.”
After one photo shoot, a photographer connected the young teen to Dutchess County resident James Lidestri, who she claimed quickly began urging Burns to send “sexy” photos of herself and bought other pictures of her nearly nude and in suggestive poses, she said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit.
Lidestri, 65, posted photos of Burns and other girls on his web site, TeenStarlet.com, and in April 2013 — when she was just 16 — flew her and her mother to the Big Apple for a photo shoot with him at his Hudson Valley home, she claimed.
“When Audrey and her mother got to their room, they found at least ten $100 bills lined up on the bed alongside a bag from Juicy Couture,” according to the lawsuit.
Once at his house, he plied her still-recovering mom with beer and whisked Burns away to different bedroom, where he gave the girl booze and “constantly groaned” while photographing her on the bed, she said.
Eventually Lidestri pinned her on the bed and assaulted her, then told her “not to tell anyone about what had just happened, explaining they could both get in trouble for the past photoshoots,” Burns claimed.
When she gained a following online, Lidestri — who also made a web site for her under a pseudonym — allegedly forced Burns to answer vulgar messages from adult fans and chastised her when the high schooler didn’t spend enough time doing so.
“I didn’t understand the things they were saying,” she recalled.
He also encouraged the girl to send him pictures of herself in exchange for cash he’d send via Western Union, Burns alleged.
Eventually, Burns’ online life caught up with her in high school — forcing her to drop out as she was taunted by peers, according to court papers.
Burns fled the state, later cutting ties with Lidestri altogether. Penniless, she became a stripper to survive, she said. And she is still haunted by “fans” of her teenage images.
“Audrey is still contacted by men who remember her and possess images and videos of her as a minor and who implore her to send them unreleased content from when she was a child,” she said in legal papers.
“At least two of these men have informed Audrey that they purchased and possess the video of Lidestri performing oral sex on her when she was a child.”
When she spoke publicly about Lidestri and the assault, Lidestri sued her for defamation. The case is ongoing.
Lidestri insisted in his own court papers everything with his web sites was above board and that he did not know Burns before she turned 16.
“Burns alleges that I gave her mother alcohol and told her that she could not be present during the photoshoot. This is untrue,” he said in the filing, adding “I never became aroused at any point and most importantly, I did not come into physical contact with her at any time.”
Burns, who said she forbids her oldest child from social media because of her own experience, labeled Lidestri’s lawsuit an “abusive litigation tactic.”
She continues to do OnlyFans content to survive.
“It does not feel good,” she said.
Burns has asked a judge to dismiss Lidestri’s defamation case, said her lawyer, Daniel Szalkiewicz, who added that she decided to file her own suit as a way to fight back.
“It’s a testament to somebody who has overcome every hurdle in life,” he said, adding, “She deserves justice against this individual.”
A lawyer for Lidestri did not respond to a message seeking comment.
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