Barrington man pleads guilty to child porn
A Barrington man pleaded guilty Monday to having thousands of child pornography images and videos.
As part of the negotiated settlement in Lake County court, John Malecki, 46, was sentenced to 24 months of felony probation and is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, said Cynthia Vargas, spokeswoman with the Lake County state's attorney's office.
Malecki, who pleaded guilty to a felony count of possession child pornography, also must continue to attend sex offender treatment. He is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children under 18 and using the internet while on probation, Vargas said.
Remaining counts of possession of child pornography were dropped as part of the plea deal, she said.
Malecki, of the 500 block of Shorely Drive, was arrested April 6 after more than 10,000 images and videos of suspected child pornography were seized from his house, authorities said. He was under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff Cybercrimes Unit before his arrest, which led to a search warrant being executed at his house.
Authorities said multiple electronic devices capable of storing digital media were seized during the search. A forensic exam of those items revealed thousands of videos and images, many of which involved children under the age of 13.
Malecki has been free from Lake County jail after posting the required 10 percent of his $150,000 bail in April, officials said.