Convicted sex offender who claims he’s an eight-year-old girl argues his child porn stash is protected by free speech
- Joseph Gobrick, 45, has been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison after dozens of child porn images were found on his computer in Grand Rapids, Michigan
- He tried to argue that the images were computer-animated and protected under the first amendment
- Police, however, said the images recovered from his computer identified eight child victims
- Some of the images showed victims ranging from infants to about five years of age being raped
Joseph Gobrick, 45, has been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison after dozens of child porn images, including some of children being raped, were found on his computer
A convicted sex offender in Michigan who claims he identifies as an eight-year-old girl has argued that the child porn stash he was caught with on his computer is protected by free speech.
Joseph Gobrick, 45, has been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison after dozens of child porn images, including some of children being raped, were found on his Grand Rapids home computer.
He tried to argue that the images were computer-animated and protected under the first amendment, WLTX reports.
Police, however, said the images recovered from his computer identified eight child victims.
Some of the images showed victims ranging from infants to about five years of age being sexually assaulted.
Gobrick, who represented himself at his trial, claimed he is not sexually attracted to children.
‘I would no sooner have sex with a child than you would with a rattlesnake,’ he told the judge during the trial.
‘It’s just not safe.’
He also bizarrely claimed that he was an eight-year-old girl.
He tried to argue that the images were computer-animated and protected under the first amendment. Police, however, said the images recovered from his computer identified eight child victims
‘I’ve always been an eight-year-old girl,’ Gobrick said. ‘And even my drawings and fantasies, I am always an eight-year-old girl.’
During his trial, prosecutors called him a ‘danger to the public’ and said he had been bragging in prison about raping babies.
He drew images while in prison of child pornography and regularly argued that it was his constitutional right to do so.
‘Based on everything he’s said and done, including bragging about what he was drawing in his cell, he obviously doesn’t think child sexually abusive material is wrong,’ the Kent County Circuit Court judge said.
‘This isn’t just virtual stuff; this is also real people being harmed.’
Gobrick was arrested in 2018 after police found a 17-year-old girl at his home.
The girl had been listed as endangered or missing.
It was during that investigation that authorities found the child porn on his computer.
Gobrick already had a prior sexual abusive conviction in New York from back in 2001.
He was sentenced in the child porn case to between 10 and 20 years in prison.