WORCESTER, Mass., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A British child pornographer who built a special dungeon with the intent of trying cannibalism was sentenced in Massachusetts Tuesday to 27 years in prison.
Geoffrey Portway, 40, a British citizen living in Worcester, Mass., also was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to five children he victimized through his pornography activities, The Boston Globe reported.
Federal prosecutors painted Portway, who remained silent during his sentencing in U.S. District Court, as a man intent on torturing and eating children. Portway's attorney said while his client had "issues," cannibalism was just a fantasy of his, the newspaper said.
Investigators who searched Portway's home found 20,000 images of children being violently sexually abused and others who were dead. They also discovered a hidden, sound-proofed dungeon containing a child-sized homemade coffin, a child-sized metal cage, scalpels and other cutting instruments, and two freezers.
Authorities also obtained Internet communications in which Portway and a Kansas man, Michael Arnett, discussed Portway's request that Arnett kidnap a child for Portway to torture, murder and cannibalize, the Globe said.
"That is all I live for. I am serious," Portway wrote in one posting. "It is the only thing that gets me up in the morning.''
Arnett has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in Kansas.
