Child porn victims getting cash restitution from viewers (Washington, DC)

It's so disgusting that these poor girls had to go through this. Seems to me that restitution could be a really useful way to hit these sicko child porn makers, collectors, and distributors where it hurts.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Child-porn-victims-getting-cash-restitution-from-viewers-8671934-79855502.html

Child porn victims getting cash restitution from viewers
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
December 22, 2009

Federal judges in Alexandria and Washington have ordered convicted child porn collectors and distributors to pay more than $37,000 to two victims depicted in the images as part of the latest strategy to crack down on offenders who some judges say victimize children without physical contact.

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Restitution for Vicky and Misty varies widely.
Misty's biggest: $3.7 million

Misty's smallest: $500

Vicky's biggest: $147,000

Vicky's smallest: $250
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The two women are identified only as "Misty" and "Vicky," and collectively they've been awarded nearly $10 million nationwide since February, when Misty won $130,000 from a Connecticut man who collected the pictures and videos her uncle took when she was 8 years old.

Vicky, now 19, won the first restitution case locally in September, when U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady ordered a Stafford County man to pay her $3,000 for the images he downloaded of an 11-year-old Vicky being abused by her father.

"Receiving and viewing child pornography inflicts an injury upon the child depicted by violating his or her privacy, contributing to a cycle of abuse, and perpetuating a market for the sharing of material," O'Grady wrote in his opinion.

A week after O'Grady's ruling, his colleague in Alexandria's federal courthouse, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, turned down Vicky's request in a different case. Brinkema said the link between convicted child porn distributor Jack E. Cole and the harm caused to Vicky was too thin and speculative to require restitution.

Brinkema will soon rule on another restitution request prosecutors filed last week on Vicky's behalf. Alexandria resident and convicted child porn distributor James B. Clawson's attorney, Nina Ginsberg, said she hoped Brinkema presiding over the case would bode well for her client.

"I don't see how viewing the images can be a direct cause of somebody's suffering," Ginsberg said. "These are not the hands-on people. There is a very clear line between the two."

The restitution ordered by judges in Vicky's and Misty's cases now far exceeds the $10,800 Vicky's father was ordered to pay and the $6,325 Misty's uncle was required to pay, court records show.

In a statement to O'Grady, Vicky said she lived with constant paranoia "because the most intimate parts of me are being viewed by thousands of strangers and traded around. ... It feels like I am being raped by each and every one of them."

fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com