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Michigan pedophile says he identifies as 8-year-old girl, defends child porn collection citing free speech laws

Joseph Gobrick, 45, was convicted of on three counts after dozens of child porn images were found on his Grand Rapids home computer
UPDATED JAN 12, 2020
Joseph Gobrick (Police mugshot)
Joseph Gobrick (Police mugshot)

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN: A pedophile who argued that he identified as an eight-year-old girl and that his act of looking at child sex abuse images was protected under free speech laws was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Joseph Gobrick, 45, was convicted of on three counts of child sexually abusive commercial activity and using a computer to commit a crime after dozens of child porn images were found on his Grand Rapids home computer, including some of the children being raped.

After being booked in jail, the accused did not help his case by acting as his own lawyer and openly speaking about his disturbing sketches and conversations, WZZM13 reported. 

Also, during his sentencing, he told the judges that the photos recovered from his computer were computer-animated. "I’ve always been an eight-year-old girl. And even in my drawings and fantasies, I am always an eight-year-old girl," he said. 

However, the police have identified eight of the victims who featured in the pornography stash recovered from the pedophile's home. Some of the victims were between the ages of infancy and five years old. 

During the trial, Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Helmer hailed Gobricks as "a danger to the public." 

"Even during the trial, the defendant continued to draw, talking about raping babies in the Kent County Jail and making other statements about how this is his constitutional right to continue to do so," he said. 

Gobrick, a convicted sex offender from New York, who was arrested in 2018 after a missing 17-year-old girl from Ohio was found at his home, also claimed that he had the right to look at child abuse photos and videos because it was protected under the First Amendment—a claim that was tossed out by the prosecutors. 

"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. This isn’t just virtual stuff; this is also real people being harmed," Helmer said.

He also likened his prosecution to the holocaust.

"Under the law, Auschwitz was legal. What you’re doing here is wrong, Just as Auschwitz was," he said. "I would no sooner have sex with a child than you would with a rattlesnake. It’s just not safe."

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