A 25-year-old engineer in Puy-en-Velay, France was sentenced on Tuesday to one year in prison, as well as court-ordered therapy, by a three-judge tribunal for possession and distribution of images of child pornography. According to the court, he had collected "pornographic" Japanese manga featuring sexually abused female characters, six to eight years old, on his computer and shared the manga on the Internet.

The authorities had interrogated him about an Internet forum post in which he wrote, "We're recruiting female members, 12 years old or younger." The man asserted that the post was a joke, and his lawyer added that the defendant is a social recluse.

One of the judges asked the suspect, "When you see a girl six to eight years old being raped, don't you think there's something wrong?" He responded, "If you had read my psychiatric report, I don't imagine myself in the place of the rapist, but rather in the girl's." The judge replied back, "You're very intelligent. The doctor only reported what you told him. Me, I don't believe a word of what you are saying."

The convicted man has been barred from any activity that has regular contact with minors and will be registered on the national sexual offenders' list.