Father, Son Arrested In Child Porn Ring
AURORA, Ill. (WBBM) - A Kane County judge Thursday set bond at $15 thousand apiece for an Aurora man and his son accused of downloading and trading massive amounts of child pornography on the Internet.
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Aurora Police technicians are trying to determine how much child pornography is on two computers seized from the home 56-year-old Thomas Babicki shares with his 26-year-old son Joel.
Deputy Attorney General Cara Smith said the computers' unique IP addresses showed up frequently in trafficking monitored in recent weeks by police.
Both are charged with aggravated possession of child pornography, a charge that could bring a prison term of up to seven years, if convicted.
Smith said doing a complete forensic examination of the computers could take a number of days, and may result in additional, and more serious, charges.
She said that so far there is no evidence that either of the Babickis manufactured child pornography, only that they traded it.
The elder Babicki's wife also lives in the home, but police said they have no reason to suspect her.
The Aurora arrests bring to 13 the number made in a statewide crackdown begun in August.
At the time, Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that investigators had identified trafficking in child pornography by 8,000 IP addresses traced to Illinois computers in the previous 30 days.
Smith said that number has declined in the past 30 days to 6,400. While she said it is still regrettably high, it represents evidence that those who view child pornography are beginning to realize that they cannot hide from Internet sleuths.
"The technology they use to victimize our children is the same technology that law enforcement around this state will use to identify, arrest and imprison them," Smith said.
