Autistic Marine admits kiddie porn charge

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., July 21 (UPI) -- An autistic Marine has admitted possessing child pornography and is expected to be freed from the Camp Pendleton brig near San Diego within days, officials say.

Joshua Fry, 21, will receive a bad conduct discharge, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. But a military judge suspended all but a year of his four-year sentence, and he has already spent 359 days in the brig since his arrest last year.

"The Marine Corps isn't set up to handle developmentally disabled adults," his lawyer, Michael Studenka, said. "Society is a lot better off with Josh in treatment."

Fry was arrested last year when another Marine spotted child pornography on his cell phone. The arrest came a few months after he enlisted.

The case has raised questions about enlistment practices. The recruiter, who had known Fry in high school, signed him up even though Fry had just spent 15 months in treatment for an obsession with child pornography.