Pediatric cancer specialist gets a year in prison for looking at child pornography

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 11 (UPI) -- A top pediatric cancer specialist in Ohio received a relatively short sentence of a year and a day Friday for downloading child pornography.

Dr. Christopher Pelloski could have received as much as 10 years in federal prison. Prosecutors in a sentencing memo asked U.S. District Judge James Graham for at least four years.

"The government believes that the position of trust and responsibility the defendant was given in regards to young and vulnerable children heightens his culpability in this case and warrants a significant term of incarceration," Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather A. Hill said.

Pelloski headed the pediatric radiation-oncology program at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University. He admitted when he pleaded guilty last year that he downloaded pornography on a university laptop as well as on his home computer.

Defense lawyers said Pelloski had been sexually abused when he was a child and called his pornography consumption "a misguided attempt at processing his own abuse and repressed memories."

Pelloski agreed last year to the indefinite suspension of his Ohio medical license.