Mar 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Michael David Barrett, the insurance executive from Illinois who plead guilty to shooting nude videos of Erin Andrews through her hotel peepholes was sentenced on Monday to 2 and a half years in prison. He has until noon on May 3 to turn himself in.

Barrett plead guilty to interstate stalking in December. Prosecutors had charged him with the offense after he was accused of following Andrews to at least three different cities and shooting video of her through the peepholes, all without her knowledge. Although Barrett had initially agreed to a 27 month sentence, it was up to the judge’s discretion how much time he actually has to serve.

Andrews begged the judge to give him a harsher sentence, stating that she fears for her life everytime she goes into a hotel room alone, which is very hard for her since she practically lives in and out of hotels. Barrett shed tears as he told the court how sorry he was, but Andrews was not accepting of the apology. “You violated me and you violated all women,” Andrews told Barrett. “You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up.”

After he was sentenced, Andrews said that 30 months was still not enough. U.S.District Judge Manuel Real stated that this was the harshest sentence he could hand down under the law. “The victim, Andrews, will be suffering with this problem for the rest of her life,” Real said. “There is no life sentence that can be imposed upon him, except his own guilt.”

The videos which he took are now the number 5 search in Google hot topics. In spite of the fact that so many people seem to think what Barrett did was horrible, people still continue to support his actions by searching for the videos. No matter what sentencing he had gotten, or how sorry he is, those pictures can never be retrieved. Andrews has to live with her pictures forever in cyberspace, and there is nothing she can do about it, and she may not be the only one.

It has been said that Barrett may have taped as many as 12 women without their knowledge, and a sentencing memo filed last month states that Barrett uploaded as many as 16 pictures of women to an online account. Prosecutors say that there are 32 videos showing that Barrett invaded the privacy of these women in a horrific way, that the internet videos can never be recovered.

Although Andrews admits that this has had a devastating effect on her, she will still appear on “Dancing With The Stars” as was formerly agreed. She said that to keep herself hidden from the public eye would send the wrong message to other victims.