Richard Loughry
Richard Loughry, 46, claims he did not know the sex worker was a minor Metro Police

A Las Vegas Fire Captain paid $300 (£230) for an encounter with a 15-year-old girl in his fire station dormitory. She had been abducted and forced into prostitution several weeks before.

Richard Loughry, 46, was arrested on 17 April and faces several charges including engaging in child prostitution, according to an arrest report seen by News3LV.

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He maintains that he was not aware that the unnamed girl was underage when he paid her for sex – she was advertised on classified website Backpage.com as being 22.

But her attorney, Louis Schneider, said the child was abducted six weeks ago and forced into prostitution.

"She told me that she had been brought to a fire station and that a captain had come out of the fire station and taken her by the hand and walked her past the fire engines and into the captain's dormitory and had sex with her in there," he told News3LV.

The alleged encounter between Loughry and the girl took place on 28 February. The arrangements were reportedly made by the girl's pimp who trafficked her for nine days.

Loughry claims that he never asked the girl to confirm her age and would not have engaged in sexual contact with her if he had known she was a juvenile.

However, Schneider said: "As an attorney and as a father I found it so offensive. She barely got the words out of her mouth and I called an FBI agent ... and they came immediately to my office.

"She is a child. When I saw her she was a child... how could you not know she was a child and it's heartbreaking and I have children of my own... and it's a horrible thing," the lawyer added, before admitting that Loughry must be presumed innocent before proven guilty.

Schneider reported the incident to the FBI after the girl's sister took her to him for help. A regional human trafficking task force then used phone records to connect Loughry to the girl.

He reportedly used a secret mobile phone to make arrangements with prostitutes. It was registered under a false name and his wife was not aware of it.