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LI Pediatrician Gets 30 Years For Abusing, Videotaping Children

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Long Island pediatrician who pleaded guilty to federal child exploitation charges has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Rakesh Punn, 57, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip. His attorney says the sentence was excessive and vowed to appeal.

Prosecutors say Punn abused young patients, photographed them and submitted false insurance claims for the visits.

Punn initially was charged with abusing three children under the guise that he was giving them medical treatment. He admitted in April 2014 to sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl who was a patient in his office in Bethpage, Long Island.

Prosecutors said Punn covered the girls' eyes with gauze and a blindfold and then assaulted them. In many instances, Punn would give the girls a sedative to render them unconscious.

Other times, Punn would have the girls stand in his office and expose their breasts while a small digital camera hidden among objects on his desk recorded video, prosecutors said.

Punn allegedly told the girls these "procedures" were medically necessary examinations.

He was first arrested in July 2010 and charged with secretly videotaping girls while they were naked in his office.

Punn also pleaded guilty in 2014 to similar charges in Nassau County. He has since surrendered his medical license and is scheduled to be sentenced in that case next month.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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