A Round Lake man is being held until trial on multiple counts of reproducing child pornography that prosecutors said featured juveniles being attacked, drugged, and involved in Satanic-type rituals.
David Cox, 20, of Round Lake, is facing six Class X felony counts of reproduction and dissemination of child pornography, prosecutors said in court Friday.
If found guilty at trial, each Class X felony count could land Cox in prison for up to 30 years.
Assistant Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Theis said Cox would use the computer program Discord to obtain and disperse multiple images of child pornography across the internet.
He said Cox recently logged into a child porn distributor in Russia using Discord and disseminated violent pictures involving children across the internet.
Prosecutors said some of the images Cox owned or disseminated depicted the offenders sexually assaulting children between the ages of 8 and 13.
In addition, Theis said some images featured children either being drugged, strangled, or attacked while the perpetrators were wearing satanic-type materials.
Cox also discovered police had launched an investigation into his internet usage and began deleting photos from personal devices and computer programs, prosecutors said.
Theis said Cox was a danger to the community because he lives within 500 feet of a park and 1000 feet of a school and a day care center.
Cox admitted to the crimes he is charged with, prosecutors said, telling authorities he was unable to control himself.
Theis filed the necessary paperwork to detain Cox in Lake County Jail until trial on Friday morning.
Friday afternoon, Cox appeared before Lake County Circuit Court Judge Michael Nerheim for a detention hearing, where Cox was detained for being a real and present danger to the community and possessing a sophisticated knowledge of where to find child pornography using computer programs and the internet.
Cox is due back in court on June 12.