Bay Area nanny Nicole Hidalgo, 28, is charged with molesting young girl she was hired to care for so she could send photos of abuse to man she met online, cops say

A California babysitter has been charged with abusing a girl she was hired to care for, weeks after she was accused of producing and sending pornographic images of the child.

Michelle Nicole Hidalgo, 28, was charged with three more offenses after prosecutors said they found even more disturbing evidence.

She was initially arrested last month after police in Contra Costa County received a tip from an unnamed social media platform about child abuse images Hidalgo had allegedly shared on their platform.

When investigating her online activities, police reportedly found conversations between her and a man asking for “worse and worse” images of the girl.

The nanny was still employed by the victim’s family at the time of her arrest. She is currently being held on a $2.7 million bond and faces a prison sentence of 60 years to life if convicted.

In addition to the four child pornography crimes she previously faced, Hidalgo has now been charged with three more counts of child abuse of a victim under the age of 10 and using a minor for sexual acts.

The nanny was previously charged with child pornography crimes, before additional evidence of further crimes was reportedly found

When confronted with the images by a senior prosecutor’s officer, Hidalgo reportedly admitted to sharing the images and called them a “stupid” one-time mistake.

But police suspect that she also abused the child at the direction of the man to whom she sent the images.

According to court records, the sickening clues caused the man to ask Hidalgo to do “increasingly worse” things to the girl while he documented it.

After receiving the initial tip, the Contra Costa County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed a search warrant at her home, where they seized “equipment used in the production and distribution” of the child abuse images.

Prosecutor Diana Becton previously said authorities had not ruled out the possibility that there were more victims.

Although she reportedly admitted to the images, Hidalgo pleaded not guilty to the charges during her first court appearance last month.

Her bail was originally set at $700,000, and before it was increased to $2.7 million on Friday, the district attorney’s office said at her first hearing that it would argue to keep her behind bars if her defense asked for it to be reduced of the bail.

‘Why? Because she is a danger,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Graves said at the time.

According to Hidalgo’s Facebook profile, she is originally from Pacifica, California, and graduated from Terra Nova High School.

Authorities have not ruled out that there are more victims in the case

Hidalgo’s arrest is the latest in a string of recent cases in which daycare workers and nannies have been accused of similar disturbing crimes.

Last month, a Bay Area daycare worker was sentenced to 25 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Jace Wong, 26, was arrested in San Francisco in 2021 after an undercover officer linked him to a pornographic video of a girl between four and six years old.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, a daycare worker has been accused of sending photos of naked children to a trans former politician.

Lindsay Groves, 38, is accused of taking nude photos of children ages three to five at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, about 35 miles northwest of Boston.

Prosecutors say the New Hampshire resident took the photos in a private bathroom during pre-nap breaks, texting them to someone “with whom she previously had an intimate relationship” and sharing 2,500 text messages.

The investigation into Groves also led to the arrest of Stacie Laughton, 39, who is believed to be the first transgender person elected to a state legislature in the country. She is accused of distributing child pornography.