Child Molester Voluntarily Castrated

(Newser) – A convicted child molester is about to go free—and all it cost him was his you-know-what. Francis Phillip Tullier, 78, underwent voluntary surgical castration yesterday as part of a long-delayed plea deal, the AP reports. The procedure was conducted at Tullier's expense. Tullier had faced hundreds of molestation counts over his abuse of three girls, ages 6 to 12, in Louisiana. "They had enough [evidence] to send him up for two or three life sentences," Tullier's lawyer tells the Daily Mail. "He had no chance of getting out of prison unless we did something unusual."

"I didn't want chemical castration, I wanted the whole deal," the lawyer added. "The victims probably weren't happy, but I'm not representing them." Tullier agreed to the surgery in 1999, but it had been pushed back several times over various health concerns. In October, he expressed misgivings about the deal. "I lost my house, I lost my wife and now y'all trying to take my manhood," he said. The judge replied, "It's time to give to Caesar what Caesar is owed."