Life for Californian in rape of Filipino girls
A Northern California man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for buying Filipino children for sex and pornography.
U.S. District Judge John Mendez said Tuesday that he was sickened by Michael Clemans’ crimes. He says Clemans stole the childhood of victims through crimes that were unthinkable and inexcusable.
Prosecutors say few child exploitation cases nationwide are “as lurid, willful, and disturbing” as this one.
Authorities say the 57-year-old Sacramento man was an airline pilot living in Thailand when he began conspiring with a woman in the Philippines in 2014 to produce child pornography and obtain girls as young as age 7 he could rape.
Clemans continued traveling to the Philippines after returning to Sacramento in 2015.
His defense attorney says Clemans later helped authorities catch two Filipino co-conspirators.
