Father who kept 7-year-old daughter in cage, used her for violent child exploitation content, now classified as 'female' in NJ women's prison

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of child sex abuse.

A trans-identified male who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the horrific sexual abuse of the individual’s own 7-year-old daughter is now classified as female by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. 

Marina Volz, formerly Matthew, was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison in May 2022 after being found guilty of human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child. Volz and the child’s mother were separated, but Volz took the child from her mother’s custody in Oregon and brought her to New Jersey in 2018 where Volz began using the child in horrifying child sexual exploitation videos.

Volz ran a home-made “transgender pornography” production business specialising in BDSM, fetish and taboo content along with three other individuals.

The depraved child sexual exploitation scheme was launched just one year after the trans-identified pedophile served as the president of the Clark College Queer Association in Vancouver, Washington, where Volz was the face of the LGBTQ+ students on campus.

Volz was first arrested in 2019 after an anonymous tip alerted authorities to the fact that explicit content was being created in a home where a child resided. This led to investigators seizing custody of the child and raiding Volz’s property which resulted in the discovery of extensive evidence of child pornography and sexual abuse on more than 30 computers, cameras and digital storage devices.

Volz and 3 accomplices ran a “family-owned transgender pornography production studio specializing in amateur, BDSM and taboo fetish content” from the home in Franklin Township where all four resided. The 2019 investigation uncovered that Volz and accomplices jointly sexually assaulted the child, filming the assault which involved a basement cage, neck collars and a variety of sex toys.

Another trans-identified male, Ashley Romero, was also involved in the sexual abuse of the 7-year-old girl, along with a man called Sean Allen. The fourth resident of the house was Dulcinea Gnecco, who according to Reduxx acted as a domestic servant.

Judge Peter Tober avoided going into the details of the case, but told the court that the 7-year-old girl had been subjected to torture-like conditions, noting the use of neck collars, a cage in the basement, and sex toys.

“If this was not heinous, cruel and depraved, I don’t know what is,” said Judge Tober, adding that the child had been taken from her mother “solely for the sexual gratification” of others.

Upon sentencing in May 2022, Romero was immediately sent to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, whereas Volz was initially sent to the South Woods State Prison for men. However, just two months later, Volz was transferred to Edna Mahan despite still being recorded as a male inmate.

Now Reduxx has learned that Volz’s classification has been updated and the trans-identified male pedophile is recorded as female by the New Jersey DoC.

A source within the prison told Reduxx that Volz’s male genitalia is still fully intact.

Another incarcerated woman told Reduxx that Volz and Romero have expressed a desire to get married in what seems to be an effort to share a cell. The source added that neither one is undergoing sex offender treatment.

Edna Mahan, the only women’s prison in the state of New Jersey, is currently housing multiple violent male inmates with a history of violence against women and children. Reduxx attributes the state’s leniency in transferring male criminals to the female estate to the 2021 settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New Jersey Department of Corrections which requires that trans-identified inmates be housed according to their self-declared gender identity.

Last year, Reduxx spoke to multiple female inmates at the facility who told of the fear and anxiety they endure as a result of being locked up with trans-identified males.

Miseka Diggs, an inmate at Edna Mahan, said female inmates are “scared to death” of the trans-identified males. Under the current policy, these males are not required to undergo surgery and Diggs believes most are not on hormone therapy. She also pointed out that the majority of the women incarcerated at Edna Mahan have experience trauma in the past, with many being the victims of male violence. This means the presence of males in the facility causes them severe distress.

According to Diggs, women who complain of feeling unsafe are placed in protective custody.

“We can’t express our feelings in fear of being put in protective custody, [which] is like lock-up. If you use the wrong words you will be uprooted and removed from your living quarters. So many women walk around in fear,” Diggs said.

“We feel like we are part of some sick joke. This is a nightmare that we can’t wake up from. The women here are traumatized over and over again and it seems as if no one cares about our needs. We feel like second-class citizens with no rights.”

Diggs also described her anxiety at having to share a shower with one of the males transferred to the women’s prison, whom she identified as Nikita Selket. Selket is a 6′ 7″ trans-identified male serving a thirty-year sentence for the murder of his roommate in 1995. Selket is also recorded as being female by the New Jersey DoC.

According to Reduxx, Selket is one of 27 males who are known to have been transferred into the women’s facility in recent years.