68-year-old will remain behind bars

A McHenry County man locked up more than 45 years for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl will remain behind bars indefinitely after a judge Wednesday ordered him held in a secure facility to undergo sex offender treatment.

Judge Sharon Prather rejected Gary Welsh's request to receive the treatment in an outpatient setting, siding instead with a state psychologist's report indicating that Welsh poses a substantial risk if permitted his freedom.

The ruling comes about two months after Prather declared Welsh, 68, a sexually violent person at the conclusion of a four-day trial in which state authorities argued the convicted child killer has a mental defect that, if untreated, would cause him to harm another child.

Welsh has been locked up in state prisons and mental health facilities since 1962, when he was charged with killing a 3-year-old girl during a sexual assault in her Harvard home. Welsh, authorities said, was babysitting the girl at the time.

Under state law, Welsh can petition the court for his release as soon as July and, if denied, try again once every 12 months. Authorities can keep him in a secure facility under state mental health professionals and a judge determine there is no longer substantial risk of him committing another sex crime.