Dressed in green prison garb, Jason Clark walked into the federal courtroom with his head down on Thursday, and he did not look at his old friends.
Clark had already pleaded guilty to taking pictures of his friends’ daughter naked and in sexually explicit positions while babysitting the 5-year-old in 2011, and he struggled to ask them for forgiveness. Sentenced to 24 years in prison Thursday, he said the punishment would allow him to absorb the depth of his “heinous” act.
“How could I ever take advantage of a child, a girl that was so vulnerable?” he asked, staring forward at US District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns.
“I recklessly took advantage of her innocence,” he added.
The child’s mother, father, other family members, and their friends sat quietly, some sobbing, others visibly trying to control their anger. They wanted him to serve the maximum prison sentence.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Kill All the Perverts
“He tricked everyone,” said the girl’s stepfather, a former roommate and friend of Clark....
“This case shows how the sexual abuse of children is often driven by the desire to feed the market for online child pornography,” said US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. “People who produce, solicit, trade, and collect child pornography can cause a lifetime of pain for children and those closest to the young victims.”
Prosecutors said Thursday that Clark’s crimes showed that child pornography cases involve real children and people in their community.
“We all know it’s not just pictures, and a case like this brings it home,” said Assistant US Attorney Alex J. Grant.
Clark was a friend of the girl’s parents, and often stayed overnight at their home, in a room adjacent to the girl’s bedroom. He also babysat the girl.
Related: Back to Babysitting
Federal and state investigators were first alerted to Clark after Internet companies reported that someone in his name had posted child pornography images on a website, and was commenting on Web chats. In one of the chats, someone using Clark’s name reported, “I need to get another job where I can spend more time around kids . . . get more chances and pics.”
Law enforcement officials later searched his home and found thousands of child pornography images on his computer, and that he had sent e-mails containing child pornography.
No chance they were planted?
Some of the images were of the young girl, which investigators determined were taken with Clark’s cellphone camera....
He obviously was unaware of NSA collection efforts.
--more--"
Seeing as the NSA is scooping up all communications of the planet,
how can child porn sites still exist? The only explanation, sadly, is
they are all government-controlled traps for sick souls (if the whole thing isn't staged and scripted s*** that never even happened. Seen that before, too).
UPDATE: How the FBI Uses Rapists and Child Molesters to Entrap Gullible People in Terror Stings
Hey, it's all for laughs anyway, right?