Jared Fogle: Child Pornographers Weigh In, And You May Just Agree With Them

Jared Fogle shocked the world in August when he admitted to victimizing as many as 14 underaged children in a child pornography ring that had his former employer Subway cutting ties.

Fogle rose to fame as a pitchman for the company after losing 245 pounds eating nothing but their sandwiches each day.

For more than a decade, he appeared in print and commercial advertising as a spokesman for the company, but all that went out the window when the FBI’s investigation implicated him at the center of the child porn ring.

According to one report from People magazine, Jared Fogle admitted to having sex with at least two minors and obtaining child pornography of kids as young as 6-years-old.

In a plea deal that could have Fogle in jail anywhere from 5 to 12-and-a-half years in prison, much of the country believes that he got off light.

And as it turns out, there are at least two convicted child pornographers, who agree with that sentiment.

People notes that the child pornographers believe the plea deal is “ludicrous” and called it “a slap in the face to the child victims.”

One of the pornographers is Thomas Ford, who received 198 months in prison (or 16.5 years) for one count of distribution of child pornography.

That’s a lot more time than Jared Fogle will likely end up serving and, as Ford points out in a letter to the court, Fogle’s interest goes even further beyond his own.

“Just the fact that he has 14 VICTIMS is enough to consider a sentence far and away more appropriate,” Ford said.

Scott Petrie, a federal prisoner sentenced to 40 years for trading child pornography, agrees, adding that he and some others he knows serving 30-year sentences were punished far worse “for acts less than what Mr. Fogle did.”

Tim Horty, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis, stood by the plea deal in a statement to People noting that the sentencing range “was appropriate.”

“Given the facts of the case and the severity of what he did, we believe the sentencing range is appropriate,” he said.

Many of the commenters online have found it surprising that they are in agreement with convicted child pornographers with one claiming the guys “have a point” and that “if you have porn that features a 6 YEAR OLD you are beyond redemption and should be put away forever but in this country if you are rich you will get a lower sentence.”

Surprisingly, not everyone was willing to lower the boom on Jared Fogle with one claiming that what he did was wrong, but “these girls he traveled to ‘see’ were after all teenage prostitutes, not the girl next door. I am sure they are factoring that in [and] using it as a tool for his sentencing.”

Others turned it back on the convicted child pornographers, stating that no one should care what they think because they’re likely just trying to get attention for their own sentences, which they believe were, in reality, too harsh.

Subway hasn’t been the only entity or person to cut ties with Jared Fogle since news broke of his crimes.

Fogle’s wife Katie, with whom he has two children, filed for divorce the day that news broke of his arrest. While the news was apparently a shock to his wife, it was less of a shock to Subway, which admitted to receiving a “serious” complaint on Fogle, though they declined to expand on that for the press.

What do you think about what the two child pornographers above had to say about the plea deal of Jared Fogle — agree or no?

[Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]