The judge said he "saw the look of betrayal" in the eyes of children whose photos the Bay County man possessed.
By Wire services
Published March 5, 2004
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A judge sentenced a man convicted of possessing child pornography to 390 years in prison, saying he wanted to give him plenty of time to think about his contribution to ruining children's lives.
Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet gave George Thrasher, 41, the maximum five years on each of 78 counts and ordered that the terms be served consecutively.
The pictures, obtained over the Internet, depicted children ranging from infants to adolescents. Overstreet said he doubted that he or jurors, who convicted Thrasher last week, would ever be able to erase the children's images from their minds.
"I saw the horror in their eyes," Overstreet said during Wednesday's hearing. "I saw their fear, their physical pain. And they were photographed with adults, and I saw the look of betrayal in their eyes."
Assistant Public Defender Doug White asked Overstreet to look beyond the nature of the photographs and sentence Thrasher in line with the severity of the crime, which carries the same penalty as defrauding an innkeeper.
The sentence imposed violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, he said, but Overstreet called it "an unusual case that warrants a fair and just and perhaps severe sentence."
Thrasher's history of 20 prior felony convictions, including spying on children in their homes, contributed to the sentence as much as the pictures, Overstreet said.
"This defendant has been preying on innocent children and stealing their innocence for over 28 years," he said. "If he were to get out today, he would be preying on children by the weekend."
In another recent Bay County case, a man who videotaped himself raping children was sentenced to 240 years.
