Poll: Is the sentence fair?

October 19, 2001 -- A 30-year-old former church martial arts instructor was sentenced today to 90 years in prison.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge George Kreeger also sentenced Gunther Fiek today to 90 years on probation.

Fiek showed no emotion when Kreeger announced the sentence.

A jury convicted Fiek of 18 counts of child molestation and three counts of aggravated child molestation in September.

Fiek taught tae kwon do lessons to almost 100 children at Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta when he was charged with molesting the boys, ages 4 to 12. The alleged abuse occurred over a four-year period, from October 1996 to November 2000.

The church, one of the largest in Atlanta's affluent northwestern suburbs, has nearly 5,000 members. Fiek also instructed Sunday school and a soccer camp at the church.

He had faced a maximum of more than 400 years in prison.

In an interview last week, Fiek told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he may have touched some of the boys in his class "inappropriately" but says the contact was not for sexual purposes.

He said the children told the truth "as they see it." He also told the newspaper he was probably "more touchy" with his students than he should have been but says the contact was never for sexual purposes.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head called the sentence "fair," adding that the judge "did what he thought was appropriate."