Upon conclusion of the Eliot Cutler child pornography case, I’m writing to express my disgust with the lenient plea deal he received from the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office: nine months in prison with six years of probation.
It’s apparent that Mr. Cutler’s status and wealth served him well. He was allowed to retain his passport despite being deemed a “significant flight risk,” and was able to continue using the internet, convincing Justice Robert Murray to let him pay an independent company to monitor his screen time. He should have lost that privilege after downloading more than 80,000 sex abuse images of young children.
According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the average sentence for possession of child pornography in 2021 was 107 months. Mr. Cutler’s attempts to mitigate his crime by claiming he suffers from an addiction, that, according to his attorney, his notoriety is a “punishment like no other,“ and that he didn’t look at the pictures where children were subjected to “unusual harm,” are not only infuriating, they show a complete lack of accountability.
The people who truly serve time are the children who carry the damage of their abuse with them for the rest of their lives. Each picture represents a nightmare that can never be erased from the internet. Mr. Cutler helped fuel the demand for the creation of these horrific images, and violated the privacy and innocence of little children for his own sexual gratification. That should count for a lot more than nine months behind bars.
Nikki Gagnon
Westbrook
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