Former Wheaton College professor sentenced to prison for violating sex offender probation

Former Wheaton College professor Donald Ratcliff, 66, formerly of Warrenville, has been sentenced to three years in prison for violating his conditions of sex offender probation by downloading a movie featuring images of naked children.

On Feb. 25, 2014, Ratcliff was sentenced to 48 months of sex offender probation for possessing child pornography, a felony. The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to revoke Ratcliff’s probation on May 18 of this year.

In the petition, the State's Attorney's Office alleged that on April 23, Ratcliff had accessed a website containing sexually stimulating images of minors, in violation of conditions of his probation, according to a news release from the office.

On June 8, Ratcliff was found guilty of violating conditions of his parole.

“As one of the conditions of his probation, Mr. Ratcliff was ordered by the court not to possess or view any material deemed sexually stimulating,” DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release. “Simply put, he could not help himself and soon found himself viewing the same type of repulsive images that had already earned him 48 months of probation."

Ratcliff will be required to serve 50 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole, the release stated.