Ex Top Gun pilot sentenced to 50-years for child pornograpgy

               Daniel Harris refuses to apologize to victims              (C)DailyMail

31-year-old Lt. Daniel Harris, Naval Academy and Top Gun graduate has been sentenced to 50 years in prison on 29 counts of the production, receipt, transportation, and possession of child pornography, and two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said the former Top Gun pilot posed as a teenage boy online in order to get underage girls to send him nude photos and videos. The married father-of-two would then demand more - threatening to post the original photo online if the girls did not comply.
Authorities were first tipped off to Harris' disturbing pattern of behaviour in November 2013, when a 14-year-old Virginia girl told her parents that she'd met a boy online who asked her to send her a topless photo. After sending the boy the photo, she says he started demanding more, and when she refused he started asking her friends online where she lived. The girl's father and stepmother then contacted police who were able to track down the user to an IP address registered to Harris in Virginia Beach. They later seized his computer and thumb drive, finding nearly 800 sexual pictures and videos of girls. Additionally, they recovered hundreds of chat transcripts going all the way back to 2011, involving the screen names of more than 275 girls - 45 of whom admitted to Harris that they were underage.
Investigators believe hundreds of victims may have fallen prey as they were only able to track down nine.
Harris refused to apologize to the victims or even admit he was guilty, and was reported to have sent a letter to the Chinese Embassy, saying he would give them military secrets if they broke him out of jail. The judge took strong issue with the fact Harris showed no emotion throughout the trial and sentencing, save for one brief moment when a teenage victim forgave him.
He must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence with good conduct before he is eligible to be released. Andrew Sacks, Harris' defence attorney, argued for the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, and said it is a relief Harris didn't get a life sentence, which was possible. Sacks said his client would appeal.