Man draws 100 years for sex case
PHILADELPHIA » The Chester County man accused of engineering a sexual triangle involving himself, a teenage girl, and a blue collar worker who convinced the girl he was a teenager like her, and who amassed what was reportedly one of the largest stockpiles of child pornography in the state’s history, has been sentenced to serve 100 years in a federal penitentiary.
The sentence, handed down on Monday by U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter after an emotional hearing at which the victim recounted how Lawrence “Larry” Jamieson’s duplicity destroyed her world and damaged her for years to come, amounts to a life term behind bars for the 59-year-old Main Line scion.
“We are very, very pleased with the sentence,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella, who prosecuted the case when it was transferred to federal court, after initially being filed in Chester County by local authorities, on Tuesday. “He will never be getting out (of prison) again. He is just a true predator and if he had ever been released it is a virtual certainty that he would have victimized someone else.”
Rotella said Pratter’s courtroom was packed with supporters of the girl and her mother, and that the victim was provided with a comfort service dog when she approached Pratter’s bench to address what Jamieson’s sexual abuse had done to her.
Digital First Media does not identify the victims of sexual assaults without their permission.
“She is completely broken,” Rotella said of the victim, now 19 years old and living with her mother. She has trouble eating and sleeping, and is constantly reminded that pornographic photos that Jamieson took of her and posted to the internet will never be erased. “She just feels like she can’t move forward.”
Jamieson, of Willistown, who was accompanied in court by his attorney, Arthur Donato of Media, and his two sisters and brother in law, told the court that he was sorry and apologized to the victim, her mother, and his own family.
Donato said he had asked Pratter to mitigate her sentence based on Jamieson’s age, his acceptance of responsibility for his crimes, and his remorse. He said that although he understood why the judge ordered him jailed for a century, “We are understandably disappointed in the length of the sentence.”
Jamieson pleaded guilty a year ago last week for charges involving sexual abuse of a minor girl, manufacture of hundreds of sexually explicit videos and images of his abuse of the girl when she was 15 and 16 years old, and the collection of more than 14.4 million images of child pornography that he downloaded from the internet.
“Jamieson is the worst of the worst type of criminal — a child predator who derives satisfaction from abusing society’s must vulnerable members,” said U.S. Attorney William McSwain on Monday. “When it comes to protecting children from child predators, our actions will be swift and severe. Predators, take note: No matter who you are or where you come from, we will hunt you down, prosecute you, and put you in a jail cell for a very long time.”
Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan praised the investigators who broke the case in August 2016, Willistown detectives Stephen Jones and Robert Will.
“This was an outstanding investigation by the Willistown Police Department and Chester County Detectives, making the defendant’s conviction a slam-dunk of a case,” Hogan said in a statement Tuesday. “This was the largest collection of child pornography ever discovered in Chester County, combined with the sexual abuse of the victim, showing once again that child pornography is simply another point on the spectrum of sexual exploitation. We appreciate the Department of Justice using their much higher sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences to use against this defendant.”
Rotella also praised county Deputy District Attorney Megan King, who handled the cases against Jamieson and his co-defendant locally, and FBI Agent Jennifer Morrow.
According to Rotella’s office, Jamieson began collecting images of children being sexually assaulted approximately 15
years ago. Even after he had been charged with sex crimes and ordered to complete sex offender’s therapy in a separate case, “he collected some of the most demented images imaginable of toddlers and infants being sexually assaulted by adult men and women, and in some cases, by animals,” it said in a press release.
During the same time that he was trafficking in child pornography, Jamieson’s conduct escalated, and he engaged in a plot to sexually assault the girl, with whom he was acquainted. Rotella said Jamieson knew the girl had mental health issues, including having been diagnosed on the autism spectrum and suffering from learning disabilities and attention deficit.
“He knew all those things about her, and picked her as his victim,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “He targeted her, because he knew he would be able to get to her.”
In a bizarre twist, Jamieson used a 23-year-old Norristown man who worked at a tire store to lure the girl into a sexual relationship, convincing her he was a high school student who attended cyber-school, like her. As her “boyfriend,” codefendant John Christopher Brown then engaged her in sexual activity, photographed and videotaped her, and distributed the videos and images back to Jamieson. Her images were also distributed to others over the internet.
At some point, Brown convinced the girl to have sex with Jamieson, which he also recorded. Jamieson then began abusing her on a regular basis.
The crimes were uncovered after the girl’s mother reported the matter to a child abuse tip line. Jones was able to get the girl to divulge what had been happening to her, with whom, and for how long.
Jamieson has been in custody since his arrest in August 2016. A private contractor, he is a member of a well-known and respected Main Line family. His late father, Larry Jamieson Sr., was a successful insurance agent with Massachusetts Life Insurance Co. in Paoli, and once a member of Downingtown Borough Council. He died in 2010. His mother is Kathleen Casey Jamieson, the owner of a well-known interior design business in Haverford.
Brown, now 27, also entered guilty pleas to similar charges. he was set to be sentenced on Wednesday, but fired his attorney and is now represented by the U.S. Defender’s Office. Rotella said his sentencing will be continued until sometime later in the year.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, the court ordered that Jamieson have no contact with the victim or her family for the rest of his life.