UPDATE: 'Subway Jared' Fogle Gets Harsh Prison Sentence For Underage Sex, Porn

Jared Fogle, the humiliated former spokesman for the Subway sandwich chain, was sentenced Thursday to 15 years and eight months in prison for a range of crimes, including distributing child pornography and paying older prostitutes to recruit underage girls for sex.

The sentence was harsher than sought by prosecutors, who portrayed Fogle during his four-plus-hour sentencing hearing as a monster with an insatiable sexual desire for boys and girls, teenaged and younger.

His defense team, in contrast, tried to present a temporarily off-kilter client who suffered from ”mild” pedophilia that could be treated with medication.

The sexual abuse Fogle was responsible for, a psychiatrist testifying on his behalf said, was caused in part by the weight loss that he became famous for and led to his stint representing Milford-based Subway.

The psychiatrist, John Bradford, testified that Fogle became “hyper-sexual” because after overcoming the vice of overeating he adopted the sin of abusing young people. He simply, the psychiatrist said, swapped one craving for another.

At the hearing, Fogle spoke publicly for the first time since he found himself embroiled in the massive child sex scandal that began when his Zionsville, Indiana, home was raided in July.

“Not a day will go by when I don’t think about what I did to (the victims),” a tearful Fogle told the courtroom, dressed in a suit and tie. “For most of my adult life, I’ve been in the spotlight, trying to be a role model ... I became dependent on alcohol, pornography and prostitutes.”

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During the hearing, prosecutors presented glimpses into the dark world Fogle occupied, presenting texts to U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt before she sentenced him.

At one point, when asked in a text from an acquaintance about 14- and 15-year-old girls, Fogle texted back, “That’s what I crave.”

In another, he said of a 15-year-old: “If she’s good looking, I’ll give you 300 (dollars), and her the same.”

Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist of the University of Ottawa, said his assessment of Fogle wasn’t consistent with psychological tests of other sex offenders.

Earlier, the psychiatrist referred to Fogle’s as a man suffering from “mild pedophilia.”

Prosecutor Steve DeBrota seized on the characterization.

“So that’s a term you’ve come up with to provide scaling to the word pedophilia?” he responded.

The judge interrupted, saying, “You gave your wife $7 million. So she’ll be OK.”

Shortly before his sentence was read, Fogle choked up making his final statements.

“Although I realize that I can never change my deplorable past choices, I so regret that I let so many of you down,” Fogle said. “I want to become a good, decent person.”

Pratt reportedly sat silent for most of the proceedings — “$7 million” quip aside — but chided Fogle during her sentencing for allowing his life of privilege and celebrity to spiral out of control into one of manipulation and horror.

“Federal judges do not sentence based on emotion or public sentiment,” she said, adding, “The level of perversion and lawlessness exhibited by Mr. Fogle is extreme.”

Fogle was sentenced on one count of possession and distribution of child pornography and another for crossing state lines to pay for sex with minors, in accordance with his plea agreement.

He was put in handcuffs and led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals as he blew a kiss and waved goodbye to his family.

He has 14 days to decide whether to appeal his sentence.

Fogle faced anywhere between five and 50 years under federal law, but as part of his plea agreement, federal prosecutors said they wouldn’t seek a sentence longer than 12.5 years.

The Indy Star said that Pratt “is widely considered the toughest judge in the Southern District” for prison sentences.