Posted on 02/09/2006 6:14:17 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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.
No formal hanging, these sick, perverted dementos need to be put in a cage with two tigers, justice will be served.....I repeat ACLU, and all of the softee-wishy-washy liberals there is no rehabilitation for these bottom feeders of society, when will society wake up and smell the coffee?????/seoul62
Other prisoners will be issuing him basics like clothes - so his may not be of much use. And he may not get any luxuries like a bar of soap or a towel.
Other prisoners will be serving his food - so he'll be feeding on spoiled food flavored with spit or possibly much worse.
Other prisoners will be letting him know, every chance they get, just how much fun killing him is going to be.
He's not going to be having a great time lifting weights and watching cable, such as is often implied in mainstream pieces.
We can only hope that this living garbage will be put into the general population and become the girlfriend of some real slimball. Part of the sentence should have required him to be in general population . He would have been VERY WELL taken care of in that situation .No doubt they will isolate him at great expense to the tax payer. I hope at least he's put on hard labor and forced to break his back for decades. Again , he;ll probably escape that in our bleeding heart society and be allowed to read and go to school in prison. If I had my way I'd let him go....right in the neighborhood of some of these kids parents and friends. Then look the other way ...
It's nice to see justice done in California. And I don't think the defendant will be popular with his fellow inmates.
"And I don't think the defendant will be popular with his fellow inmates."
I hope he is "VERY POPULAR"
The needle for this scum!
Remember the Catholic priest scandal and these two guys Shanley and GEoghan (130 victims) who were two of the worst of them. One of them was at the founding meeting of Nambla and a life-long member. Geoghan, from Boston, was killed in prison by an inmate shortly after he arrived.
It's pretty sad when even murderers and thieves understand how wrong abusing kids is when a "respected" group like the ACLU doesnt.
I'm with you. He'll definitely get his in the "end" (pun very much intended).
It'll probably be appealed before some lib judge and his actions haled as "artistic" or some itsh.
Can death be too good for anyone?
I firmly believe that God has a special place in Hell reserved for those who hurt children.
Nah, this freak's gonna be getting a dose of what he dished out for a very long time. He'll probably end up offing himself when he gets tired of mainaining his colostomy bag.
You may be right -- depending on who's elected president next time, he may be able to apply for an NEA grant.
Sentence sounds about right.
I'd be surprised if he wasn't one.
1. It should be a capital crime, and
2. These people should be placed in the general prison population
Take this piece of shit, tatoo KKK in big letters on his back and send him to the integrated wing, in Castaic, let the Crips , Bloods and Latin Kings, do what they will with him.
Its time to institute the death penalty for people like this--either by conventional or unconventional means.
A big problem here are the demented judges such as the ones in Vermont, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts recently who have all but legitimatized pedophilia.
I have an autistic nephew. If he had been touched by this monster, I would have found some way to smuggle a gun into the courtroom and finished the trial myself - even if it meant my being on trial for murder (mercy-killing).
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