Attorney General Madigan: Kane County Man Arrested on Child Pornography Charges
Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced today the arrest of a Kane County man on child pornography charges as part of a continuing statewide crackdown.
South Elgin police arrested Ronald Lee Gablin, 31, of South Elgin. He is charged with one count of aggravated possession of child pornography, a Class 2 felony punishable by a three- to seven-year prison term in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and one count of possession of child pornography, a Class 3 felony punishable by a two- to five-year prison term.
“Possession of child pornography is not a victimless crime. Each time an image or video is viewed, downloaded or traded online, it victimizes again and again these children who are being horribly abused,” Attorney General Madigan said. “My office will continue finding these offenders and making arrests throughout Illinois to protect the innocent victims whose lives are destroyed by their crimes.”
Gablin’s arrest makes the 18th suspect in Madigan’s crackdown on the most active traffickers who download and trade child pornography on the Internet. Gablin’s bond was set at $250,000, and his next court date was set for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Kane County Judicial Center.
Madigan said cooperation among state and local law enforcement was key to the success of today’s arrest and her overall crackdown on child pornographers throughout Illinois. Today’s arrest involved Attorney General’s Office investigators, the city of South Elgin Police Department and Kane County State’s Attorney Joseph H. McMahon.
In late August, Attorney General Madigan announced the initiative, dubbed Operation Glass House, to find and arrest the worst child pornographers in Illinois using the unique identifier that each computer is assigned when it accesses the Internet, known as an Internet protocol (IP) address. As of Friday, 6,000 Illinois IP addresses were seen trading child pornography images and videos across the state by Attorney General’s Office investigators.
Studies have shown that users of child pornography are more likely to also be sexual abusers of children. A total of 24,796 sex offenders are listed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, of which more than 81 percent committed a crime against a child. The Illinois Sex Offender Registry is located at www.isp.state.il.us.
Madigan also works with local and national law enforcement organizations to address Internet exploitation of children and women. Madigan’s office, with a grant from the Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement. Since 2006, Madigan’s office has been involved in more than 350 arrests of sexual predators and provided Internet safety training and education to more than 164,000 parents, teachers and students and more than 12,500 law enforcement professionals.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.