Van Nuys Man Sentenced on Molestation Charges : Crimes: A former volunteer for youth organizations receives 14 years in prison after entering a no-contest plea.

A 54-year-old Van Nuys man who admitted using his position as a youth volunteer to molest at least six young boys was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison after declaring, “I need to be punished, I must be punished.”

Landreth Harrison, who had pleaded no contest--the legal equivalent of a guilty plea--to 10 sex-related charges, could have been imprisoned for 24 years.

When the plea was entered last month, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ashmann indicated that she would impose a sentence of about 14 years unless court-ordered probation and psychiatric reports indicated that a longer sentence was warranted.

The probation report, while terming Harrison a “predator on young children,” also disclosed that he had no prior arrest record.

In luring young boys to his home, the defendant was “simply fulfilling his own sexual appetite with absolutely no concern for the emotional frailties of his victims,” the report said.

In his statement to the judge, Harrison did not quarrel with the report, saying he wanted to ask forgiveness from his victims and adding, “I’m a sick person and I need help.”

At a preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court in July, six young boys testified that during the past two years, Harrison repeatedly molested or sodomized them at his mobile home or on outings.

They said they met Harrison through two organizations for which the defendant volunteered--the Boy Scouts and the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley in Pacoima.

The boys, ages 10 to 12, testified that they called Harrison “Landy” and that he bought them sweat shirts and provided them with tents and other camping gear.

Several said they enjoyed the outings but disliked the sexual abuse.

There was “no evidence of force or coercion” in the boys’ relationship with Harrison, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Walmark.

But he said the defendant “misused his position of trust to exploit the boys.”

Police arrested Harrison, then a cashier at a Northridge hardware store, after a pizza delivery man April 19 reported seeing two naked boys inside the mobile home.

Harrison has been in jail in lieu of $210,000 bail since his arrest.

He pleaded no contest to eight counts of performing a lewd act with a child, one count of sodomy and one count of possessing child pornography.

The child pornography count is based on several videotapes that police found at Harrison’s home showing the defendant in the company of several nude boys.

Police say the boys on the video have never been identified but are not the same ones who testified against Harrison.

According to officials of the Boys & Girls Club, Harrison was dismissed from his volunteer position after the club learned that he had taken two boys on an unauthorized camping trip.

An official of the Boy Scouts’ Los Angeles Area Council said Harrison was a former scoutmaster but said he had not been affiliated with the scouts for at least two years prior to his arrest.