Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Sheriff’s detectives arrested a 46-year-old Ventura County man for sexual assault after an investigation revealed he had kept a 13-year-old girl as a sex slave for the past several months.

Shawn Barth has been living in a motorhome in an orchard west of Moorpark since May 2008. During that time, he has repeatedly sexually assaulted the victim and kept her in an isolated environment under an extreme level of physical and psychological control. Barth purposely parked the motorhome more than a mile from the nearest road, so the victim would not escape.

Although the victim was allowed to attend school, she feared Barth, who threatened her throughout the ordeal. She did not tell anyone about the suffering she had endured. The Moorpark Unified School District notified the girl’s previous school to obtain records. They discovered there was a possible restraining order against Barth for a previous allegation of child molest involving the victim. District officials notified the sheriff’s department and Ventura County Human Services Agency.

The investigation began on Sept. 11, 2008, and the tragic circumstances of the case quickly unfolded as detectives followed Barth’s trail from San Bernardino County to the orchard near Moorpark. Barth’s crimes did not begin after he moved to Moorpark. Investigators believe the pattern had begun long before, when Barth was living in San Bernardino County, which is where he first had contact with the girl.

Barth is currently being held at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility in Ventura in lieu of $1,000,000.00 bail. The investigation is continuing with the cooperation of the Ventura County Human Services Agency and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

As with many sexual assault cases, investigators are concerned that there may be other victims or witnesses with information about Barth.

Anyone with information about Barth is asked to call the East County Sexual Assault Unit at (805)494-8201.