Court upholds decision to keep McHenry Co. child killer locked up

A state appeals court announced today it is upholding a McHenry County judge's ruling that a man who raped and murdered a 3-year-old girl in 1962 is too dangerous to go free, despite his prison sentence ending nearly five years ago.

The Second District Appellate Court ruled unanimously that there was enough evidence for Judge Sharon Prather to declare Gary Welsh, now 69, a sexually violent person, a decision that allows state authorities to detain the convicted killer indefinitely until psychiatrists and a court agree he is no longer a threat to the public.

Welsh has been locked up since 1962 after he was accused of sexually assaulting and killing a girl who he was baby-sitting in Harvard. Authorities said the girl suffocated when Welsh shoved her face into a pillow to muffle her cries.

After years of treatment in mental health institutions, Welsh was tried and convicted of murder in 1973. He was scheduled for release in December 2004 when state authorities moved in and asked that he be declared a sexually violent person.

After a four-day trial in 2007, Prather ruled Welsh has a psychological disorder that creates a "substantial probability" he will commit further acts of sexual violence if released.

In his appeal, Welsh argued that the state did not show beyond a reasonable doubt that he was, 45 years after the murder, still a sexually violent person.

The appellate court, however, noted that the state presented three expert witnesses who believed Welsh would be a danger if released into the community.