WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices expressed compassion for a woman raped as a child as they struggled with how much money should be paid to her by one man convicted of possessing images of the abuse that have spread among thousands of online viewers.
The woman known as “Amy” was in the courtroom, her legal team said, for arguments in which the justices talked frankly about the abuse she and other victims of child pornography suffer from those who look at the pictures.
“The woman has undergone serious psychiatric harm because of her knowledge that there are thousands of people out there viewing her rape,” said Justice Antonin Scalia.
Yet the court seemed to wrestle with determining how much restitution any single defendant should pay. The justices heard an appeal from Doyle Randall Paroline, who was held liable by a federal appeals court for the $3.4 million judgment associated with the Internet trade and viewing of images of Amy being raped by her uncle when she was 8 and 9 years old.
