Ex-Bangor porn user denied lighter penalty

''We are confident that a minimum of 24 months in prison will act to disrupt [Anastos'] pursuit of perverse satisfaction and will make him think twice before continuing his reprehensible behavior,'' the court wrote. ''Society needs to be protected from [Anastos] and serious rehabilitation is necessary to ensure [Anastos] sees the error of his ways.''

Mark R. Anastos, the former Bangor man who complained that his two- to four-year state prison sentence for possession of child pornography was too harsh, has lost his bid to have the punishment reduced.

The state Superior Court on Tuesday filed a decision upholding the sentence, imposed March 16 by Northampton County Judge Anthony S. Beltrami.

Anastos, 51, had contended that Beltrami erred by deviating from state sentencing guidelines, the standard range of which call for probation to nine months in prison.

The appeals court said Beltrami did nothing wrong and noted that during his guilty plea, Anastos admitted he appeared in a sex video with a 15-year-old boy.

During a sexuality evaluation, the court's decision says, Anastos ''admitted to the sexuality evaluator that he harbored fantasies about underage males and had acted on these fantasies in cultivating a relationship with the young male depicted in the video.''

In addition, the appeals court wrote, ''The possession of child pornography is, if not a heinous crime, certainly a reprehensible crime. What separates the current offense from the typical possession offense is [Anastos'] repulsive attempt to create a pseudo-philosophical defense in support of his reprehensible actions.''

Anastos, the appeals court wrote, used the sexuality evaluation and an interview for a presentence report ''as a soapbox for defending his perverse views on sexuality and bragging about past criminal behavior for which he had not been caught.''

Anastos acknowledged that while he was free on bail, he viewed child pornography. He also told a probation officer that he had sexual relations with seven or eight males ages 14 to 18.

During the sexuality evaluation, he was ''pompous'' and ''defended the idea that consent in sexual interaction is a matter of maturity rather than that of age,'' the appeals court wrote.

Beltrami was right to deviate from the sentencing guidelines, the appeals court wrote, because Anastos' ''past pattern of behavior'' must be disrupted.

''We are confident that a minimum of 24 months in prison will act to disrupt [Anastos'] pursuit of perverse satisfaction and will make him think twice before continuing his reprehensible behavior,'' the court wrote. ''Society needs to be protected from [Anastos] and serious rehabilitation is necessary to ensure [Anastos] sees the error of his ways.''

Police learned of Anastos' behavior in March 2004, when an Easton man reported he had seen child pornography on Anastos' computer. A search of the computer uncovered about 200 images of suspected child pornography.

Anastos moved from Bangor and lived a short time in Forks Township.

He turned himself in to police when he read in a newspaper that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was charged in January 2006.