Nicholas James Needham, who pleaded guilty in October to molesting a 5-year-old boy in an Orange mall restroom, was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison for a separate crime: possessing more than 200 images of kiddie porn.
The 28-year-old, who'd recently moved to Orange from Laguna Beach when he was arrested for the June 2010 incident at the Block of Orange (since renamed the Outlets at Orange), is expected to draw a six-year prison sentence at a March hearing in that case.
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Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana ruled that both sentences will run concurrently and that Needham must register for life as a sex offender, which will also bar him for designated city and county parks and recreational facilities in Orange County.
The afternoon of June 15, 2010, Needham walked into a men's restroom at the Block, cozied up next to a 5-year-old boy he did not know, reached over the urinal and touched the boy's penis. Needham left the restroom and the boy immediately told his mother what happened. That led to an Orange Police Department investigation that culminated with Needham's arrest.
A search of Needham's residence produced an iPod containing thousands of images and three videos of pornography featuring children from infancy through early teens. He was originally charged in Orange County Superior Court with child porn possession counts, but that part of the case was later taken over by the U.S. Attorney's office, which could push for a harsher punishment in federal court.
Needham pleaded guilty October 14 in Santa Ana Superior Court to one felony count of lewd acts on a child under 14. His sentencing is scheduled next Monday, March 5.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.