The judge also said Morgan's risk to offend again is high, as this was his second such conviction. In 1996, he was convicted of felony eavesdropping for using a camera hidden in a duffel bag to take pictures up the skirts of two girls, ages 8 and 12.A man who amassed more than 18,000 images of child pornography -- much of it he created himself over a 20-year span -- will spend more than 12 years in prison despite his plea for leniency, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Gerald Morgan, 62, pleaded guilty in October to possession of child pornography and being a felon in possession of firearms.
"I know I'm not psychologically normal," he told U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in Detroit before the sentence was handed down. "If I was, I wouldn't be collecting child pornography.
"If I live long enough to get out of prison, I will never do anything illegal again. I'm very sorry if my actions hurt anyone."
Cleland said Morgan qualifying his apology with "if" was a "red flag flying."
"I dare say that there were people that were harmed," Cleland said.
The judge also said Morgan's risk to offend again is high, as this was his second such conviction. In 1996, he was convicted of felony eavesdropping for using a camera hidden in a duffel bag to take pictures up the skirts of two girls, ages 8 and 12.
In his guilty plea, Morgan admitted that for years, he lured young girls to his Clinton home by saying he was a photographer wanting to take pictures of them. He then secretly filmed the girls changing clothes and using the bathroom.
"Many of them probably still don't know," said Eaton Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney.
One of Morgan's videos included footage of an acquaintance sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl, officials said. His lawyer, federal defender Richard O'Neill, told the judge that Morgan is particularly remorseful of that incident.
"He has said to me on more than one occasion, 'I should've done something. I don't know why I didn't,' " O'Neill told the judge.
According to court documents, agents seized 100 videotapes and CDs, six hard drives, numerous photographs, negatives and other materials containing child pornography. Documents allege that more than 18,000 images were found, including video footage from parks, a video of a sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl and sadomasochistic images of children under the age of 12.
Federal prosecutors pushed for a high sentence for Morgan, noting in documents that he used a projector to project images of children onto the wall of his home and videotaped it. "As he records the still images, defendant is heard addressing the young girls in the pictures, calling them by name, and making sexual comments to them," court documents said.
The sentence includes five years of supervision upon Morgan's release from prison.
The case emerged as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006 to fight child sexual exploitation and abuse.
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