Another notable (and disparate) child porn downloading restitution award

Regular readers are familiar with the varied and disparate federal district court rulings in response to a victim of child abuse/pornography seeking restitution from criminal defendant found guilty of downloading her picture.  Thanks to a reader sending me this news report from Indiana, which is headlined "Valparaiso man ordered to pay $533,000 to child porn victim," we have another example of how a district court is dealing with this challenging issue. Here are the basics:

A Valparaiso man has been ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to one of the victims identified in child pornography he possessed. Whether any of that money will ever be paid is unlikely, defense attorney Michael Bosch said.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen said in a ruling issued Tuesday that Nathanial Josiah Worden has to pay the victim, identified in a court hearing as "Amy," $533,244 for counseling she is expected to need throughout her life. The amount was just a little less than the $544,000 U.S. prosecutors had asked for and much higher than the $3,000 that Bosch, Worden's lawyer, had argued for.

Van Bokkelen issued the order a day after a restitution hearing in U.S. District Court in Hammond, at which a psychologist testified how Amy had been victimized as young as age 4 by her uncle. The psychologist, Joyanna Silberg, said the victim now suffers from paranoia and fear of people seeing the child pornography images of her. She said those fears keep her from living her life, including from getting help, because she is so embarrassed.

Bosch had argued that even though the victim already has about $143,000 in restitution payments made from other defendants, she hasn't attended weekly counseling the past two years. Therefore, he said, officials couldn't say she would need so much more money from Worden to pay for her counseling.

Van Bokkelen said in his ruling that Worden had agreed in his plea deal to pay full restitution. He added that Worden could have been on the hook for much more -- $3.3 million -- if Amy had asked for full damages, including emotional distress.

Bosch said Tuesday that the matter is mostly academic because his client has no assets and is just beginning to serve a 35-year sentence for advertising child pornography. Worden, who is 31, would be in his 60s when released from prison. "I think the likelihood of him paying anything is slim to none," Bosch said.

Some related recent federal child porn restitution posts:

• Restitution terms debated in another federal child porn downloading sentencing
• "New legal issue: Payment for child porn victims"
• Effective new opinion discussing restitution in federal child porn possession cases
• Another thoughtful and notable district court opinion on restitution in child porn sentencing
• The latest (beneficial?) litigation front in child porn downloading battles
• Federal judge imposes large restitution punishment for downloading child porn
• Second Circuit blesses future medical expense restitution in child porn sentencing
• Federal sentence for receiving child porn includes forfeiture of home
• "Prosecutors seek nearly $200k for child porn victim"
• Another significant federal child porn restitution decision from NDNY district court