A Manhattan judge wasn't happy when a former United Nations researcher blamed his child porn downloads—which included pictures of a 2-year-old girl having her genitals mutilated—on his curiosity. "Stop rationalizing your actions," said Judge Paul Gardephe, who sentenced 42-year-old Jose Antonio Ortega-Osona to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined him $12,500 for his collection of nearly 5,000 photos and 108 videos. "Your problem is not mere curiosity."
According to the Post, Ortega-Osona faced more than 8 years behind bars, but he was granted the shorter sentence because he didn't try to distribute the "abhorrent" photos and videos he reportedly found on a Japanese website. Ortega-Osona already served 72 days in jail in Canada after customs agents in Halifax found child porn on a flash drive. When he flew back to Newark after his first stint behind bars, he was arrested again and authorities discovered a stockpile of illegal images on the computer in his Manhattan apartment.
In what the Post considered to be a show of "leniency," the judge agreed to seal a sex-offender evaluation report that Ortega-Osona's attorneys said would be "like a sign (saying) 'beat me up'" when he was in prison. The Daily News reports that the Spanish-native started working at the U.N. in 2006 and studied fertility rates in order to develop population growth estimates. After he serves his time, he is expected to be deported.
