Man gets 20 years for child molesting

A Gurnee man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for repeatedly molesting two young girls over an 11-year period.

Leonard Brady, 60, received the maximum sentence he could have under the terms of his negotiated plea to predatory sexual assault of a child.

Brady had sex with the girls between 1996 and 2007, Assistant State's Attorney Brett Henne said, and was arrested when he tried to convince those two victims to recruit a third.

One girl was molested from the time she was 7 until she turned 18, Henne said, and the second was molested between the ages of 11 to 16.

Henne asked Associate Judge George Bridges to impose the maximum sentence, saying it was "beyond unspeakable" what the girls had suffered.

He also pointed to statements Brady made that attempted to place some of the blame for what happened on the children.

"Leonard Brady does what Leonard Brady wants," Henne said. "He took every opportunity to distort the facts and blame the victims."

Henne also pointed to Brady's four prior prison sentences for crimes ranging from drug possession to theft and called him "Untreatable under any circumstances."

Brady, who defended himself in the case, had urged Bridges to grant him a hearing on his psychological fitness to be sentenced.

He claimed trauma he had suffered as a child, which included allegations of torture at the hands of his mother, had left him in need of mental health treatment

"An abused child grows into an abusive adult," Brady said. "There are some things wrong with me."

Brady became angry in the courtroom when Bridges denied his request for a fitness hearing and threw some papers to the ground, but calmed quickly when he was surrounded by sheriff's deputies.

He urged Bridges to consider a sentence near the six-year minimum for the offense, and also to recommend he receive mental health treatment while in prison.

Bridges said he was considering all the information presented during the hearing, including Brady's claim of physical abuse.

"No child should feel the pain you did or suffer the scars," Bridges said "But think about the scars inflicted on (the victims); I do not think those scars will ever heal."

Bridges said Brady will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole, Brady vowed to appeal the sentence.