Man gets 14 years in child porn case

A Roxana man pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possessing pornography depicting children as young as 5 and for performing a sex act with a 9-year-old household member.

Brian K. Cooper, 27, of the 300 block of Rohm Street, was tracked down by a statewide system for detecting child pornography, Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Nolan said during a hearing in Madison County Circuit Court.

She said that, during the investigation of the child pornography, officials developed evidence of the sex acts with a child.

The prosecutor said the case came to light as a result of an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force under Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Nolan said the software monitors porn sites that are detected by the presence of certain words that are associated with the crime.

Nolan said in a stipulation of facts made public Friday that the software detected Cooper's computer address, which led authorities to his home address.

After obtaining his name and address, authorities executed a search warrant and took possession of his computer. Experts detected images of children in sexual situations. Some of them were younger than the age of 5.

Madigan said the search turned up computer files containing nearly 3,000 photos and videos depicting child pornography.

During three police interviews, Cooper admitted downloading the images. He also admitted sneaking into the 9-year-old girl's room at night and rubbing her genital area, Nolan said in the hearing.

The prosecutor said the victim would have testified to feeling something unusual and waking up to find Cooper standing next to her bed.

A relative would have testified to hearing a family argument that occurred after the child confronted her parents, Nolan said. After the argument, the child said she might have been mistaken, Nolan said.

Nolan said in an interview after the hearing that the child pornography is available on certain websites that share images. Cooper would visit those sites, download images, then hide them in a place in his computer that most people would not be able to detect.

Cooper has been at the Madison County Jail in Edwardsville, held in lieu of $200,000 bail since he was arrested in March. He will get credit for time served.

Cooper pleaded guilty to two counts of child pornography and one of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He will have to serve at least 85 percent of the 14 years. In exchange for his guilty pleas, five other counts were dismissed.

The Attorney General's Office calls its statewide enforcement effort Operation Glass House.

"Operation Glass House is focused on investigating and apprehending individuals who are actively downloading the most heinous child pornography and present the greatest risk of sexually assaulting children," Madigan said. "In this case, our investigation led to a very dangerous person who is now facing charges of sexually assaulting a child, as well as engaging in child pornography."