A 29-year-old pedophile babysitter could be freed in just 15 years for grooming a sexually abusive girl who she was supposed to look after so she could send photos to a man she met online

• Michelle Nicole Hidalgo pleaded guilty last year to molesting a little girl
• The agreement led prosecutors to drop child pornography charges
• She faces a life sentence, but has a chance of parole after 15 years

A California nanny who sexually abused a girl in her care in order to send photos to a man she met online could be released from prison in just 15 years.

Michelle Nicole Hidalgo, 29, was arrested in September in Antioch, California, and charged with seven counts of child pornography and three counts of harassment.

On Friday morning, she pleaded guilty to abusing the child, but her plea required the introduction of a prosecutor to drop distribution of child pornography and additional child abuse charges.

The charge she is found guilty of means Hidalgo faces between 15 years and life in prison at her trial scheduled for July. But she will have a chance for parole after 15 yearsaccording to court documents obtained by The Mercury News.

Hidalgo was arrested after police in Contra Costa County received a tip from an unnamed social media platform about child abuse images the babysitter had shared on their platform.

Investigating her online activity, police reported finding conversations between her and a man in which he demanded “increasingly nasty” images of the girl.

The nanny was still employed by the victim’s family at the time of her arrest.

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In addition to the four child pornography charges she previously faced, Hidalgo was charged with an additional three counts of child abuse of a victim under the age of 10 and using a minor for sexual conduct.

When confronted with the images by a senior district attorney inspector, Hidalgo allegedly admitted to sharing the images and called it a “stupid” one-time mistake.

But the police suspected that she had also abused the child at the direction of the man to whom she had sent the pictures.

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

District Attorney Diana Becton previously said authorities had not ruled out the possibility of additional victims.

Hidalgo initially pleaded not guilty during her first court appearance last year.

Her bail was originally set at $700,000 before it was increased to $2.7 million.

The district attorney’s office said at her initial hearing that it would make sense to keep her behind bars if her defense asked for her bail to be reduced because “she poses a danger.”

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