INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — She was looking for love, and looking for a man who would “dominate” her. But an Independence woman says instead, she got caught up in the world of sex crimes suspect Morgan Littleton.
Now the woman, who we’re calling “Vina,” is speaking out about her experience.
Morgan Littleton faces several charges of sodomizing a little girl, sexual exploitation of a child, and domestic abuse.
Vina says she willingly got into an “alternative lifestyle” relationship with Littleton, who demanded that she call him “Master.” She says the relationship started out consensual, but turned violent. And she says she was disgusted once she realized he wasn’t just hurting her, he was abusing a child.
We hid Vina’s face and distorted her voice for our story, because she says she’s still afraid of Littleton. She says his threats were constant.
“That he would kill us and bury us in the backyard if we ever tried to leave him,” Vina said, “and I took that threat very serious.”
Vina says she met Littleton on an alternative lifestyle website.
“He had a quote (one the website) that said “I’ll rule you in love or rule you in fear, but rule you I shall,” and Vina said that intrigued her. Since she’s been involved in the lifestyle before, she knows that the most important aspect of a bondage or dominance relationship is safety.
“He set up rules and regulations, so we were safe and everything else,” Vina said, “but as the relationship progressed the rules went out the window or got a lot stricter and he no longer respected when i said ‘no.'”
For example, she says one of their safe words was his first name “Morgan” but calling him that would get her beaten. Vina’s friend “Maiden,” who is also in the lifestyle, says she was worried about Vina.
“This is wrong, if you were given a safe word, he should stop,” Maiden said, “otherwise it’s abuse, it’s violence.”
But Maiden says Littleton just pushed Vina’s friends away.
“I wasn’t able to talk to her or say anything, the only time I could talk to her is if he wasn’t around,” she said.
Vina and Littleton lived in an Independence home with two other women, and their 12 and 5-year-old daughters. The two mothers, like Vina, were subservient to Littleton. That is until they found videos of Littleton raping the 12 year-old girl.
“I’m repulsed by it, I can’t believe he would do something like this,” Vina said, “no matter what he did to me I never thought he would sink so low to do something to a child.”
But in order to call police, they had to get out of the house, because Vina says Littleton restricted their access to phones. According to court papers, Littleton flew into a rage because they were out of sugar.
“[He] slapped both the mother and I across the face and threw a lit cigarette at me after he slammed the mother against the wall,” Vina said.
As they went to the store for sugar, they took the chance to call police. Now, Littleton is behind bars.
Vina says the experience doesn’t scare her away from the lifestyle. She calls Littleton a bad apple, and says a lot of good people enjoy the lifestyle. But she adds that she will be more careful before jumping into her next relationship.
“We follow what’s called ‘Safe Sane and Consensual’ and once it’s out of safe, sane or consensual, it’s abuse,” Vina said.
Littleton is behind bars being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
