CHICAGO — A Chicago man was sentenced today to 37 years in federal prison for producing and possessing thousands of photographs and videos of child pornography.

SCOTT RESKEY, 62, possessed more than 400,000 images and more than 1,400 videos of child pornography on his laptop and other devices.  Reskey also groomed and sexually abused a child under the age of ten.  On more than one occasion Reskey directed the girl to engage in sex acts with him, while he filmed it.

Reskey pleaded guilty last year to one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly sentenced Reskey to 25 years on the production charge and a consecutive 12 years on the possession charge, for a total sentence of 37 years.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The Chicago Police Department provided valuable assistance.

“Reskey’s offense conduct is morally abhorrent and among the most serious child pornography offenses imaginable,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Grayson Walker argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.

The case against Reskey arose from a covert federal investigation of an online community that sent and received child pornography via a website called “PlayPen.”  Reskey accessed the site using the name “peanuty123.”  In addition to the images and videos, authorities recovered from Reskey’s laptop a document entitled “The Pedophile’s Handbook.”  The handbook spans more than 500 pages and explains how to groom and abuse minors.

Reskey was arrested in February 2017.  Authorities were able to identify hundreds of the children who were exploited in the images and videos possessed by Reskey.  Dozens of those victims submitted statements to the Court in advance of sentencing, detailing the harm caused by the production, distribution and possession of their images by individuals like Reskey.

SOURCE-DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

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