'Misty Series' Haunts Girl Long After Rape

Feb. 8, 2010— -- From the time she was 4, Amy's trusted uncle forced her to have painful oral and anal sex while being videotaped, swearing her to silence in their "special secret."

In 1998 when she was 9, the sexual abuse stopped and her uncle was arrested and imprisoned, but for more than a decade photos of the little girl have circulated on the Internet in some of the most widely distributed child pornography of all time -- "the Misty series."

Nearly 35,000 graphic images have now turned up in collections of arrested pedophiles, and Amy, who is now 20, is going where few victims of this horrific crime have gone before: She is seeking financial restitution -- up to $3.4 million -- from anyone who has sought perverse pleasure from her pain.

"I am still discovering all the ways that the abuse and exploitation I suffer has hurt me, has set my life on the wrong course, and destroyed the normal childhood, teenage years and early adulthood that everyone deserves," Amy wrote in a victim impact statement she prepared for the courts.

"Every day of my life, I live in constant fear that someone will see my pictures, recognize me and that I will be humiliated all over again," she wrote, recounting the lingering scars left on her life, despite years of therapy.

So far Amy, which is not her real name, has received about $170,000 in court-ordered restitution, and judges in several states have agreed that not only those who commit sex acts against children are culpable, but also those who download the images.

But not every jurisdiction agrees with the heavy court-ordered payments for those who view such images. Some judges have said restitution goes too far in punishing pedophiles whose only crime is to view photos, but Amy's lawyer, James Marsh, disagrees, saying the brutality in the "secret society" of child pornography requires tough measures.

"This is not 13-year-olds in bras or sexting or 17-year-old girls gone wild -- these are kids who are raped," said Marsh, a New York City lawyer.

"In one notorious set of images, the father used to put a studded collar around his 6-year-old and wrote on her in what looked like blood, 'I am Daddy's little girl, rape me.' He locked her in a dog cage," he told ABCNews.com.

Marsh is now seeking restitution in 350 cases that involve photos of Amy, through automated filings to the United States attorneys handling the cases.

In 1995, Marsh helped update a federal law that gives victims the right to sue anyone who produces, distributes or possess their child sex abuse images. It now provides statutory damages of $150,000 for each violation of federal child pornography provisions and was incorporated into the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and signed by President Bush 2006.