Lisle man gets 3 years for child porn

A Lisle man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for possessing sexually graphic movies of children on his home computer.

Gregory D. Anderson, 47, must turn himself in to begin serving his prison term Sept. 1. He also must register as a lifetime sex offender upon his release.

Anderson's trial was expected to start Tuesday but, instead, he pleaded guilty to felony possession of child pornography after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

Anderson, of 5275 Westview Lane, was arrested Feb. 26, 2008, as part of a multi-county child pornography bust through Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's High-Tech Crimes Bureau. Three others also were nabbed.

Assistant DuPage County State's Attorney Kenneth Tatarelis said investigators downloaded illicit movies that Anderson made available on a peer-to-peer file sharing program on his computer's hard drive.

Later, a forensic examination of Anderson's computer turned up about 150 "suspicious" images, two-thirds of which were determined to be child pornography. The videos depict sex acts with children ranging in age from babies to teens.

The arrest was the first of its kind for the bureau, which tracked unique Internet protocol addresses every computer is tagged with while connected to the Web. Authorities refer to the addresses as the "digital DNA" they hope will allow them to identify thousands of child pornographers such as Anderson who previously remained anonymous.

DuPage Circuit Judge Kathryn Creswell presided over Tuesday's plea deal in Wheaton. Anderson, who has a master's degree in statistics, did not have a prior criminal record. He is married with two children.