Posted on 02/11/2006 12:02:17 PM PST by wagglebee
SAN DIEGO – A pedophile who was part of the international child pornography ring that exchanged videos and photos of themselves molesting children was sentenced Thursday to more than 467 years to life in state prison.
Paul Whitmore, a former counselor for autistic children, was convicted Nov. 30 of 51 felony charges, including committing a lewd act on a child, aggravated sexual assault on a child, posing a minor for pictures involving sexual conduct for commercial purposes and attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime.
The verdicts included special allegations of bondage, sodomy, sexual penetration, oral copulation and multiple victims.
One of Whitmore's photos showed a tied-up 9-year-old drinking water out of a cat bowl, said prosecutor Jeffrey Dort.
"He used children to satisfy himself," Dort told Judge Gale Kaneshiro. "His premeditated crime is worse than the person who murders on instinct."
Whitmore's crimes included eight victims, none of whom were students at Stein Education Center in Grantville, where he worked.
The victims who were forced to testify at trial were put through hell, Dort told the judge.
He said Whitmore, 47, had shown no remorse for his crimes.
"We can only assume from that ... the worst," the prosecutor said.
Before she pronounced sentence, Kaneshiro denied Whitmore's motions for a new trial and to impose one life sentence.
The evidence presented to the jury was "graphic, shocking and overwhelming," the judge said.
Kaneshiro said the photos and videos produced by Whitmore was the most incriminating evidence to prove his guilt.
She called Whitmore a sexual abuser, child molester and pedophile who documented his sexual assaults through video and photographs.
"He is a pedophile by self examination and self declaration," the judge said of Whitmore. "He is the worst that I have ever sentenced."
Whitmore acted on his sexual impulses, molesting children of both sexes, Kaneshiro said.
In denying probation on some counts, the judge said rehabilitation for the defendant was not feasible.
Kaneshiro said she imposed consecutive sentences on many of the counts because the degree of cruelty and callousness went above and beyond similar crimes of violence.
Whitmore also induced others in the pornography ring to molest children, the judge said.
Over several years, Whitmore "groomed" a number of children – including one he was a caretaker for – into a "circle of hell," in which they were molested and had their photos taken and posted on the Internet, Dort said.
The defendant's desire to have sex with children was topped only by his passion to create a library of child pornography that was distributed around the world, the prosecutor said.
Dort pulled out a pair of handcuffs, a black leather restraint and rope that Whitmore used on his young victims, calling the defendant a "monster."
"He showed porn to children in his own house," Dort told the judge. "The crime fits the punishment."
Another man, Brooke Rowland, pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Whitmore and Rowland, a 44-year-old former ad salesman from Poway, were among 25 people arrested in North America and Europe in April 2002 in connection with "Operation Hamlet."
The child porn ring focused on individuals authorities said were distributing photos and videos on the Internet of themselves molesting children as young as 3 years old in 2000 and 2001.
A watchdog group in Sweden surfing the Web identified an offender and notified police in Denmark, Dort said earlier.
More than 100 children were identified as being abused during the investigation, and 45 of them were taken out of offenders' homes, the prosecutor said.
It was my understanding that it had nothing to do with child pornography sites. They wanted statistics on whether or not children could get to regular porn sites.
They should have to pay for the psychiatry bills these children will have for the next 50 years.
Really, SHOULDN'T there be capital punishment for people like this?
Wonder if the victims will sue his employer like others have done with the Catholic Church?
The ACLU thinks this is merely an alternative lifestyle.
He should swing from the gallows, in public and left to rot for all to see.
Was He gay.
Most pedophiles are, but if he wasn't he will be within a few days of going to prison.
But prison doesn't work!!! But he needs therapy!!! But poor thing should only have gotten a slap on the wrist or six months max!!!
This guy gets it. Cashman should turn in his robes.
To Catch a Predator IIIScroll down.
Pass it along.
80+ percent of all pedophiles are homosexual or bisexual.
Well, since he's not likely to last even 400 years in prison, 466 years sentence could have been sufficient.
I hope the introduce him to the rest of the prison population as the man that rapes children.....I hear they do not care for his type in prison....let them take care of the perv
Have you ever been to a porn site? You do not have to enter to be exposed to porn. Most of the sites are filled with porn on their web site and its almost impossible to stop anyone from going there, even though entry isnt possible without cash.
If that was true the employeer should be sued into bankruptcy.
He will not last long behind bars.
Point taken. Some Catholic Diocese are paying plenty for trying to reform the monsters.
Does he have an exhibit coming soon to the NY Met? Maybe a grant from the NEA?
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