PERV COOLS HEELS IN PRISON HOSPITAL

Porn, abuse victim decries treatment of her tormentor

KEVIN ROTHSTEIN

Boston Herald

A vile sex offender who adopted a 5-year-old from Russia only to turn her into a sex slave is being treated at the cushy Devens prison hospital - an arrangement that prompted cries of outrage from the now-13-year-old survivor.

"Masha feels that treatment is inappropriate and that what (Matthew) Mancuso deserves is punishment for the crimes he committed," said attorney James R. Marsh, who represents Masha Allen.

The kid-glove treatment for the twisted 47-year-old Mancuso is even more galling because he isn't due to be released from federal and then state custody until he's older than 90 years old.

Masha was 5 when Mancuso chose her from a videotape of Russian orphans. Returning to Pittsburgh with the wealthy divorced engineer, the little girl didn't understand at first why she didn't have a bedroom of her own. That first night in the United States she was forced to sleep in Mancuso's bed.

Five years of rape and molestation followed while Mancuso starved her to keep her thin. He photographed hundreds of the assaults, creating what investigators say are collectors' items for kiddie porn aficionados.

At his 2004 sentencing on federal child pornography charges, U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry told Mancuso, "You have scarred the psyche of this young victim for life," according to press reports.

And in Orange County, Florida, which is still waiting to try Mancuso on abuse charges, police Lt. Matt Irwin told a reporter, "I think he should die in prison."

The Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site shows Mancuso is being housed at Federal Medical Center Devens, which is for inmates needing what the bureau calls "specialized or long-term medical or mental health care." It also has a minimum security annex at the facility located at the site of the former Central Massachusetts military base.

A prisons official couldn't be reached last night. Mancuso's federal sentence is up in 2017, after which he will serve at least 35 years on Pennsylvania charges of rape and other sex crimes, Marsh said.

Masha's story prompted Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to file legislation making it easier for victims of child pornography to sue for damages. Last night a Kerry spokesman said, "Part of the reason John Kerry introduced Masha's Law was to protect children from sexual predators like Mancuso. But if they do commit sick crimes against children, these monsters should be fully punished to the fullest extent of the law."

An Ayer selectwoman said she didn't know sex offenders were being brought there.

A spouse of a Fort Devens inmate wrote in a Web site for family members of the incarcerated that inmates can "wander the camp grounds" from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. and that the camp has a dirt track, a basketball court, a baseball field, a small gym with a treadmills, a stairmaster and pingpong tables.