John Grisham Child Porn Comments; Author Apologizes

John Grisham, a well known author of legal thrillers, has apologized for the comments he made to a British newspaper that not all men who view child pornography should be jailed.

Grisham made the statement through his website jgrisgham.com, in which the author posted on October 16 that he regretted making the comments and that he is sorry for saying such things. 

"Anyone who harms a child for profit or pleasure, or who in any way participates in child pornography -- online or otherwise -- should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," the statement read. 

"My comments made two days ago during an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph were in no way intended to show sympathy for those convicted of sex crimes, especially the sexual molestation of children. I can think of nothing more despicable," it added.

Based on a story published by The Daily Telegraph, the 59-year old author said that judges in the United States had "gone crazy" over the past years sending "too many" people to jail even those who viewed child pornography online.

He said that many guys who are within his age bracket are being locked up in jail for checking out child pornography. He said that some of these "old white men," who might have drunk too much, who could not harm anybody, and would never touch a child, might have just "pushed the wrong buttons and went too far" to check child pornography.

In the exclusive interview to promote his latest novel "Gray Mountain", Grisham also shared that he has a "good buddy from law school" who was caught in a child porn sting operation in Canada and was imprisoned for three years. He said it exemplifies excessive sentencing.

He later told the interviewer that he has "no sympathy for real pedophiles" and that they should be locked up. However, he said that there are many of these men do not deserve "harsh prison sentences." According to the data provided by The Daily Telegraph, there are over 2 million people in jail in the U.S.

But Grisham's comments got flak from child rights campaigners, BBC News said in a report.

Jon Brown of the children's charity, NSPCC, for instance, told BBC News that the author's comments give the idea that checking out images online will not cause any harm. He countered this idea, saying that every image online is a symbol that there are real kids who suffer and that every click or view of these images pushes for more child abuse. 

Dino Nocivelli, a child abuse lawyer based in London, said that Grisham should try to educate himself by visiting and meeting abuse survivors. This, he said, will also enable him to understand the "inappropriateness of his comments."

Grisham is one the highest paid novelists in the U.S., earning $17 million from his work last year.