The judge in the sentencing of a 28-year-old prep school teacher who pled guilty to possessing over 9,000 images of child pornography called him a "monster," and scoffed at his requests for a sentence without jail time because he never acted on his urges. "You were a monster, it's just that you were successful in hiding it," Judge Kevin Duffy said. "You didn't take it out on a little child. Those people are totally despicable, but at least they're more honest than you." John Thomas, who has taught at Horace Mann and was slated to teach at Bank Street School this fall, was arrested last August after authorities traced a stream of graphic videos to his home. "I'm not a monster, I'm not a predator…I would never physically abuse a child," Thomas said. He was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, the Daily News reports.
Judge Duffy explained that he couldn't be lenient in his sentencing because Thomas had been "living a lie." According to the Post, Thomas's attorney argued that his client's behavior was relegated to his home, where he "sits in his home, he gets aroused and he masturbates to child pornography," stressing the fact that no actual abuse occurred. Many of the children in the images found at Thomas's apartment were of similar age to the ones he formerly taught. Two weeks ago the Manhattan DA's office released the results of a massive child pornography sting that netted 26 people, including a Harvard-educated attorney, a building supervisor, a deli worker and a substitute teacher.
