A Wilmette man is facing serious heat after being slapped with multiple felony charges for allegedly holding a stash of child porn, the Cook County Sheriff's office reports. The accused, 20-year-old Owen Taylor, was cuffed by cyber sleuths from the Sheriff’s Police Internet Crimes Against Children Unit earlier this week, following a tip about illicit images of minors younger than 13 that were linked to a file hosting account.
Pressed under the weight of the law on Wednesday, January 3, investigators discovered that the account stashing the sickening content was traced back to Taylor's address on the 700 block of 10th Street. Upon confiscating and combing through Taylor's cell phone, even more pornographic images of children were unearthed by forensic analysts, according to the sheriff's office.
Cook County State’s Attorney’s office hammered down multiple charges against Taylor by Friday, January 5. The rap sheet includes possession of child pornography with several counts highlighting possession of video and photos involving victims under the age of 13, as Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart laid out in a statement.
Ringing in his first court appearance that same Friday at the Skokie Courthouse, Taylor was granted a conditional release, though he remains under the shadow of presumed innocence until the gavel of justice says otherwise.
