Back in February I wrote about Charles Rust-Tierney, the former president of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU being arrested for child pornography. Today was judgment day for Rust-Tierney and the judge was not overly lenient on him despite his plea’s.

A former Arlington County youth sports coach and civil rights lawyer who once headed Virginia’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for buying child pornography that prosecutors labeled sadistic and masochistic.

Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, pleaded guilty in June to downloading hundreds of pornographic images of children as young as 4. Authorities said Rust-Tierney used a computer in his 11-year-old son’s bedroom to view the files, which included a six-minute video that depicted sexual torture of children, set to a song by the rock band Nine Inch Nails.

“The child pornography you purchased was of the most abhorrent kind,” [U.S. District Court Judge T.S.] Ellis said. “I don’t think five years is enough.”

A federal magistrate who declined to release him in March described the images she viewed as “the most perverted and nauseating and sickening type of child pornography” she had seen in 10 years on the bench.

Ellis also refused to release Rust-Tierney, saying he posed “a serious risk of harm to the community.” The judge added that “the term ‘child pornography’ does not convey the depravity” of the images that were downloaded.

It is important to remember that the ACLU’s stance on child pornography is that it is protected by the First Amendment. I am sure the drafters of the Bill of Rights would be proud!

Hat Tip : Stop The ACLU

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ACLU, First Amendment