A young woman who was adopted from Russia at age 5, only to be brutally abused by her adopted father, is now suing the men who have been convicted of downloading
images of her:
Her class-action lawsuit, filed Friday in Philadelphia under the name Jane Doe, targets doctors and other professionals like Mancuso who have assets that could be seized. All of the named defendants are in prison for exploiting her. They come from towns across the U.S., including Stonington, Conn.; Port St. Lucy, Fla.; and Olympia, Wash. The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported on the lawsuit Tuesday.
"Scarred by years of brutal exploitation, she must now also bear the humiliating knowledge that untold numbers of men ... continue to take sadistic pleasure in viewing and distributing graphic visual depiction of her pain and degradation," the lawsuit said.
On any given day, that could include the man standing behind her in line at the grocery store, the lawsuit said.
More than 2,300 people have been indicted by the Justice Department for viewing Masha's images alone. She is notified each time the list grows.
The victim is suing based on "Masha's Law," a provision of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act signed by President Bush on July 27, 2006, which was named after the victim. Then
Sen. John Kerry led the fight to get it passed:
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said the measure the president signed into law closes loopholes in current child Internet pornography laws. The senator and co-sponsor, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., pushed to include what they dubbed "Masha's Law" into the legislation Bush signed.
Now 13, Masha Allen was adopted from a Russian orphanage at age 5 by a man who sexually abused her. Her abuser was convicted, yet her images on the Internet are being downloaded around the world.
"It's an absolute outrage that the penalty for downloading songs illegally off the Internet was three times the penalty for downloading disgusting images of children," Kerry said. "We need to do everything we can to end the disgrace of child pornography. This is a start."
The new law dramatically increases penalties for anyone who downloads child pornography off the Internet, raising the civil penalties from $50,000 to $150,000. It will also change existing law to allow victims ages 18 or older to recover damages from those who downloaded images of them taken while they were children.