Man to stay in prison for '62 sex crime

A man locked up since 1962 for one of the most grisly murders in McHenry County history was declared a sexually violent person Thursday, a ruling that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Ruling at the end of a four-day trial, Judge Sharon Prather ordered Gary Welsh placed in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services under a state law that allows authorities to keep the worst sex offenders incarcerated indefinitely.

"His (mental) disorder makes it a substantial probability that he will engage in acts of sexual violence in the future," the judge ruled.

Welsh, 68, can petition the court for his release in six months, but the Illinois Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act allows the state to detain him until a judge and doctors agree he no longer is a threat to commit a sex crime.

Welsh has been behind bars at mental health facilities and state prisons since September 1962 for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl he was baby-sitting in Harvard. Authorities said the girl suffocated as Welsh shoved her face in a pillow to muffle her cries during the assault.

"This was not a simple, quiet act," Assistant Illinois Attorney General Joelle Marasco said Thursday. "It was bloody. It was loud. It was ferocious."

Prior to the murder, court records state, Welsh had been accused of sexually assaulting two young female family members.

He was just days from his release from prison in December 2004 when the state filed its petition to have him declared a sexually violent person. To make that finding a court must rule that a convicted sex offender suffers from a mental disorder that makes him likely to offend again.

Marasco argued that Welsh remains a pedophile and, despite his 45 years of incarceration, has made no effort to seek treatment or even come to grips with his crimes.

"Pedophilia does not just go away with time," she said. "(Welsh) has not even said the words of what he did, and that makes him dangerous."

Welsh's court-appointed attorney, Senior Assistant Public Defender Richard Behof, urged Prather to make what he admitted would be an unpopular decision and set the former Harvard man free. Welsh, Behof said, has not shown any signs of sexual aggression since 1962, even when allowed to leave prison on work assignments.

"Actions speak louder than words," he said. "Gary has done nothing in the last 45 years to indicate to this court that he's a danger."

Welsh is the second person in McHenry County to be declared a sexually violent person after a trial.