State urges judge to ignore experts, keep child killer locked up

Despite contrary recommendations from two state psychologists, lawyers for the Illinois Attorney General urged a judge Thursday not to release a former McHenry County man locked up since he raped and murdered a 3-year-old girl 47 years ago.

McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather will rule Dec. 9 on a request from Gary Welsh, 70, to go free or into a conditional release program after almost five decades of incarceration.

The decision, as Welsh's court-appointed attorney suggested Thursday, could come down to how much faith Prather has in a pair of psychologists who believe the repeat sex offender no longer poses a substantial threat to commit more offenses.

"The court and the Attorney General has to trust the experts they put in charge of Mr. Welsh's treatment," Senior Assistant Public Defender Richard Behof said.

The psychologists, who testified during a two-day hearing this week, agreed that Welsh no longer needs to be locked up in a state facility, but differed on where he should go next. One recommended he be totally discharged from the state system, while another believes it better to instead place him in a conditional release program where he could be closely monitored.

However, the head of one of those programs testified Thursday that Welsh would not fit in because he has continually refused sex offender treatment while in state custody.

"We want him to come out with the right tools," said Jerry Isikoff, executive director of the Safety First release program. "The right tools are in the facility before he gets out."

Welsh has been in state prisons and mental institutions since September 1962, when he sexually assaulted and killed a girl he was baby-sitting in Harvard. Authorities said the girl suffocated when Welsh pushed her face into a pillow to muffle her cries.

He had been scheduled for release from a prison sentence in December 2004 when the state moved to have him declared a sexually violent person. Prather granted that designation 2007, allowing the state to hold him in Department of Human Services custody until doctors and a judge agree he no longer is a threat.

Assistant Attorney General Joelle Marasco said Welsh has made no progress since.

"Not very much has changed since 2007 other than two years have passed," she said. "He has been offered the intense sex offender treatment he needs and he has refused it."