Urbana man sentenced in child porn case
URBANA — An Urbana man who admitted possessing child pornography has been sentenced to two months in the Champaign County jail and fined $20,000.
William McDonald, 54, who listed an address in the 900 block of Wabash Avenue, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Champaign County Judge Harry Clem to aggravated child pornography and was sentenced to 30 months of probation. He'll have to register for life as a sex offender, according to Assistant State's Attorney Lindsey Clark.
McDonald was arrested in August 2010 after an Urbana police investigator, using a computer program, discovered that pornography was being downloaded to McDonald's IP address. The investigator got a search warrant and found that McDonald had on his computer movies of 3- to 6-year-olds engaged in sex acts with adults, other children and animals.
Police had been monitoring McDonald's pornography activity for a couple of months before his arrest Aug. 17.
This guy was looking at child porn. There is no proof that he has ever participated in any kind of child porn. There is clearly a line between information and participation. The opportunity this man has is to hopefully realize his problem and seek help or if that is not his choice then the consequences of repeat offenses or participation will result in his probably dying in a jail cell. It is unfortunate that if he were to sexually abuse a child that they were subjected to this possible predator but all offenders are not alike. Some do change at some point if given opportunities of help or examples of suffering in jail. Everyone has this opportunity awarded them whether or not you agree because on the other end of the spectrum you would be complaining about the cost to incarcerate more potential criminals. Looking at child porn does feed the hunger of those who make such material available be they criminals or cops.
It very easily could have been a federal crime. But the Feds chose to not pursue. The Urbana pd did choose to pursue. And no matter who chose to pursue the crime, once a verdict is made, double jeopardy laws state he cannot be tried again in the united states for the same incident. Since it was in Urbana, the Urbana pd couldve pursued, the champaign county sheriff had their option, the u of I police has jurisdiction, parkland police have jurisdiction, the state troopers have jurisdiction, and finally yes, u are correct.. The FBI or marshals couldve also pressed charges.. Since the Urbana pd was the only one who cared about this specific crime regarding this specific individual, it's their show. And they don't report to federal court, they report to county court. As to the sex offender registry for life.. Of course I agree with this guy registering for life, but there are so many cases that really stink. How many 18 year olds are sitting in jail and/or registering for the next 10 years or lifetime for messing around with a 16 year old?? Puberty happens about age 9-14 and from then on it's normal human instinct as with any other animal on this planet. Who are we, as animals, to dictate when and where our sex drive may take over our decision making. Of course there are these individuals that are attracted to children before puberty, and that IMO isn't natural. Basically, if Johnny messed around with sarah 3 years ago, She was 16 he was 18, chances are, I would not have a problem with him being my next door neighbor.... But yet people never look into the situation. They see a list of SEX OFFENDERS and addresses and never clicked the details portion to find out if what he was doing was natural but yet illegal....... I dot know, to each person his own opinion...
Comments
News-Gazette.com embraces discussion of both community and world issues. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. We reserve the right to remove any comment at our discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.