Oswego man pleads guilty to child porn possession on work computers

An Oswego man accused of possessing more than 800,000 child pornography images and videos on computers at his Batavia workplace has pleaded guilty.

James R. Clark, 53, of the 200 block of Foster Drive, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of possession of CSAM materials and accepted a sentence of 10 years in prison.

When he was arrested in February 2024, a Kane County prosecutor said Clark used the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network to receive and send the files. The materials were found on his desktop work computer and a laptop computer, as well as several thumb drives and five hard drives, in his office at a Batavia automotive supplies company, according to the prosecutor.

Some of the images were stored on the hard drives as far back as 2002. The prosecutor said the children depicted ranged from infants to age 15.

Clark was charged with 30 counts of reproducing or disseminating child pornography; the crime has since been renamed to child sexual abuse material. If convicted of multiple counts, he could have been sentenced to consecutive prison terms.

He must serve at least 50% of his sentence before being eligible for parole and will have to register for life as a sex offender.