From www.mysanantonio.com- Jurors on Friday convicted a San Antonio man in one of the most salacious cases ever heard in the federal courthouse here.

After deliberating a little more than two hours, the jury found Sean Michael Block guilty of aiding and abetting his former girlfriend in an attempt to sell her 5-year-old daughter for sex, and a separate count of sending her child pornography.

Block, 40, faces 30 years to life on the sale count, and five years to 20 years on the child porn charge. Senior U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth will sentence Block within the next 60 days.

The jury heard 21/2 days of lurid testimony and details of crass, explicit phone texts and online chats Block had with Jennifer Richards, with whom he had an affair for about eight months in 2008. The trial also blew the cover of a longtime informant who is a well-known businessman in San Antonio.

Prosecutors Tracy Braun and Sarah Wannarka told reporters afterward that the case was very difficult to present to the jury, but the government chose to come full force — including outing their confidential source — because of its commitment to catching child molesters and pornographers.

“Would people believe this was really happening?” Braun asked, referring to the surreal details of the case.

“Children are safer because Sean Block and Jennifer Richards are in jail,” Wannarka added.

Richards, 25, pleaded guilty April 22 to trying to sell her daughter and admitted she was going to teach the child how to perform sexual acts on men.

Richards testified that she agreed to the sale after prodding by Block to do it, although Block blamed her and told agents that he was running his own undercover sting. Because she cooperated, Richards might get 20 years — below the minimum of 30 at her June 23 sentencing.

Block’s lawyers, Jimmy Parks Jr. and Ed Camara, said they were disappointed with the verdict. The defense argued at trial that the attempted sale was one of the fantasies that grew out of the couple’s lifestyle, and that Block did not act upon them.

Parks said it might have been difficult for the jury to look beyond the sexual practices.

“The text messages (and chats) were salacious and sometimes difficult to listen to for people not into that lifestyle or not familiar with that lifestyle,” Parks said.

Block and Richards led a “BDSM lifestyle, which included bondage, domination, submission and sexual role-playing. The pair discussed having sex first with Richards’ 5-year-old daughter and later with her 10-month-old daughter when she got older.

Block also sent two child-pornography links to Richards and got excited about watching them with Richards, according to their texts and testimony.

The texts and chats also discussed selling the girls to men, taking photos and video of the men having sex with Block’s older daughter first, and using the recordings to blackmail them.

Among the men the couple discussed was William Gholson, the owner of Billy Bob’s Beds, who was secretly working with FBI agents trying to catch child predators.

Gholson met Block in 2007 at the Cheesecake Factory, where Block worked and where Block met Richards in early 2008 and started their affair.

Working with agents, Gholson gained the couple’s confidence and posed as a predator. Block offered Richards’ 5-year-old for Gholson to “groom” for sex in August 2008.

In exchange, Richardson was to get an apartment, a used car and her bills paid, although Block’s chats and texts discussed pumping more money out of Gholson.

Gholson, at the direction of agents, secretly recorded his phone conversations with Block and Richards. Gholson testified during Block’s trial to help tie the evidence together. He also said that over many years of serving as a cooperating source for law enforcement he made about $1 million, including expenses.

The risk of outing Gholson — who has convictions that include tax evasion and insurance fraud from 30 years ago — was something the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office discussed before putting him on the stand, according to Braun.

But because of the importance of the case, “everyone was willing to do it, including him,” Braun said.

Parks said after the trial that he was impressed by Gholson.

“He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Parks said.