NYPD officer given 30 yrs for torture

NYPD officer given 30 yrs for torture
Agence France Presse

New York, Dec 14: A New York city police officer was sentenced to 30 years on Monday for the torture of a Haitian immigrant, a crime that raised questions about the credibility of the city's police department.

Justin Volpe, 27, was sentenced for beating and sodomising Abner Louima, 32, with a broomstick in a police station bathroom in 1997 after a false arrest. On completion of his prison term, he will be on probation for five years. After maintaining his innocence for two years, Volpe pleaded guilty in May.

Volpe's admission came after four fellow police officers testified against him a startling development considering the strong code of silence in New York's police force. The prosecution, which asked that Volpe be jailed for life, described the crime as ``one of the most serious non-lethal acts of police brutality in the history of New York city''. Louima's attorneys also said they would appeal, deeming the sentence too lenient given the violence of the attack, which left Louima with a perforatedrectum and bladder.

Volpe, in tears, asked forgiveness from the victim in court. He repeated his line of defence, which was that he had only fully remembered what happened when he heard the witnesses' sworn statement. Volpe has also blamed his conduct on ``animal rage''.