DuPage County sex offender gets 35-year sentence

A 49-year-old former DuPage County man who has been a registered sex offender since 2005 was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison stemming from a new child pornography conviction.

David Vernon Tank was convicted of producing and transporting thousands of images and hundreds of videos, according to federal court papers. He pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing the images via the Internet. He was initially arrested in 2009.

Authorities said Tank was originally convicted of conspiracy to sexually exploit children in 2001 in California. He was caught in the mid-1990s and after serving nine years of the sentence, including time served prior to his conviction, he was released in 2005 and moved to Illinois.

He lived at times in Wheaton, Roselle and Bloomingdale, authorities said. Authorities said Tank also admitted to filming himself with a cellphone camera sexually abusing a young girl he baby-sat. Those images are now being found by law enforcement officials on the computers of other sex crime defendants around the country, prosecutors said.

Tank must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, which amounts to 29 years and nine months. He will also be placed on lifetime supervision if he is ever released from prison, according to the judge’s ruling.