Massachusetts Would-Be Cannibal Sentenced 26 Years in Prison for Child Pornography, Kidnapping Plans

A Massachusetts man who conspired with other men online to kidnap, rape, kill and eat children was sentenced to more than two decades in prison Tuesday.

Geoffrey Portway, 40, pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence. He was also discovered to have discussed killing and eating children with men in Kansas, Florida and other states. He was sentenced to 26 years and eight months behind bars, reports ABC affliated News Center 5.

During the case, prosecutors revealed that the Worcester resident possessed a basement dungeon, a child-sized coffin, butchering tools and metal restraints in preparation to perform ghastly acts upon children.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf said chats recovered from Portway's computer show he solicited people to help him kidnap a child to live out his fantasy.

"I want to eat ... the two boys you will bring me," Belf quoted Portway as writing, according to the AP. "Perhaps not today, but it will happen. That is all I live for ... I am serious. It is the only thing that gets me up in the morning."

Portway's defense team argued that he was merely fantasizing and did not intend to do the things he described online. Defense lawyer Richard Sweeney called the room in Portway's basement a "theater" rather than a dungeon, and said Portway used it as part of his "fantasy world."

Sweeney said Portway, a computer programmer, never tried to put himself in a position where he would have contact with children and never "laid a hand on any minors."

However, Belf argued that Portway "can only claim fantasy here because he hadn't done it yet."

Portway, a British citizen who faces deportation, was one of about 60 people arrested in an investigation of an international child pornography network that began in Massachusetts and has extended to at least a half dozen other countries. Belf said 167 children have been identified as victims and rescued during the investigation.

The families of five children identified in pornographic images on Portway's computer will each receive $3,000 in restitution.