Girl, 14, who ran away from home 'because her stepfather was raping her' begged a 31-year-old man she met online to rescue her - 'but he made her send a VIDEO of a sex attack before he came to get her'

A Wisconsin man has been charged with sexual exploitation of a child for allegedly convincing a sexually abused 14-year-old girl from Tennessee to send him a video of her stepfather raping her.   

Bryan Rogers, 31, was charged in US District Court in Madison Monday with knowingly persuading a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.

According to his arrest affidavit, Rogers befriended the underage victim via the online game Roblox sometime in December. 

The two began exchanging messages around Christmas Eve, and soon after the teen confided in Rogers that she was being sexually assaulted at home. 

Twisted: Bryan Rogers (left), 31, of Wisconsin, has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor in connection to the rape case against Tennessee stepfather Randall Pruitt, 41 (right) 

The 14-year-old girl had been missing since January 13 when she vanished from her home in Madisonville, Tennessee. Pruitt, her mother's husband who adopted her, has been arrested on rape charges 

Over a series of messages, the home-schooled 14-year-old begged Rogers to help her and revealed that she was having suicidal thoughts because of the alleged sexual abuse. 

'I can't just stay here,' she wrote to Rogers. 'If u don't help me somehow I might as well kill my [expletive] self like I've been planning to do.'

But instead of contacting the authorities, according to court documents cited by The Washington Post, Rogers instructed the girl to secretly record her 41-year-old stepfather, Randall Pruitt, raping her as proof that she was telling the truth. 

When the girl tried to push back, Rogers expressed concern that without the video evidence, he would get in 'a hell of a lot of trouble' with the law for helping her escape from her family's home in Tennessee. 

He also pointed out that he was putting his freedom at risk for a virtual stranger whom he has not even met.   

'If you can get that video I can get you out of there but without it you will just wind up back with your dad and I'll be in trouble,' the man told the teenager.  

Despite her initial misgivings, the girl agreed to videotape Pruitt allegedly assaulting her and sent the video to Rogers on January 10, according to the affidavit.

On January 14, Rogers drove more than 700 miles to pick up the 14-year-old from her family's home in Madisonville, Tennessee, and took her to Madison, Wisconsin, where he lived with his mother.

Last Thursday, law enforcement officials searched Rogers' home and found the missing Tennessee girl hiding in a basement closet, after Rogers previously claimed she was not there.

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Pruitt and the girl's mother, Christina, made emotional, televised appeals for her to come home earlier this week 

When questioned by investigators, the 31-year-old claimed he did not send the seven-minute video showing what he described as a 'full blown rape,' which was discovered on his phone, because it was 'blurry' and he thought it would not hold up in court. 

He admitted to driving through the night with the teen and staying away from tollways and gas stations equipped with surveillance cameras to avoid detection. He also smashed the girl's phone so they could not be tracked.   

If convicted, Rogers faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison.  He remains in the Dane County Jail. 

Pruitt, who legally adopted the victim after marrying her mother, Christina, was arrested on Thursday and charged with rape.  

He made his initial court appearance on Tuesday and had his bond set at $2million. Pruitt is due back in court on May 13.   

Days before his arrest last week, Pruitt made an emotional television appearance where he said life had 'stopped' since his wife's daughter went missing. 

'Life has just ceased for us since the day she left,' Pruitt said during a press conference.

'It's like having your soul ripped out of your body. You can't think, you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't rest. 

'She has never misbehaved or been a bad kid ever. This is way out in left field for her. 

'Please come home, we do miss you terribly,' he said.  

The girl's mother has not been charged in connection to the rape, even though the victim claimed in her exchanges with Rogers that she had tried telling Christina about the sexual abuse. 

'She was my sunshine, and now my sunshine is gone,' Christina told reporters during her and Pruitt's appeal to the public last week. 'Please help us find our baby, please.

'We're very heartbroken. I miss her. I don't understand...none of us understand,' she said.  

WATE 6 On Your Side has recently interviewed Christina, who insisted that she knew nothing about the alleged sexual abuse of her daughter, and said she was now focused on coping with the trauma and caring for her three other children.