A Kendall County Judge has sentenced a Minooka man to 60 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a child.

Judge Robert Pilmer handed down the sentence to Shane English, 39, who was found guilty on four counts of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child earlier this week.

Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said the charges against English date back to late 2020 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was alerted that images of child pornography had been uploaded through the internet.

This information was forwarded through law enforcement channels to the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office for immediate investigation, revealing that English had video recorded numerous instances of himself having sexual contact with a child family member who was approximately four-years-old at the time, Weis said.

The sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices worked together to gather the evidence needed to arrest English within days of receiving the initial anonymous information, Weis said.

A search of English’s residence was completed and electronic devices belonging to English were recovered. These devices were forensically examined with assistance from the Illinois Attorney General’s High Tech Crimes Bureau which uncovered the video recorded evidence.

English was interviewed by members of the sheriff’s office following his arrest and confessed to committing multiple sexual acts against the child and recording those acts, Weis said. English remained in custody while the case proceeded through the court system.

During the sentencing proceedings, the victim’s mother gave a victim impact statement on behalf of herself and the child victim.

“She stated how her courage in coming forward and telling the truth was what made the abuse stop,” Weis said. She also thanked the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices for their work and support, Weis said..

The state’s attorney also praised the work of the sheriff’s office who oversaw this complex investigation, along with members of his own office, and other law enforcement personal who were able to support the work done to save this child from further abuse.

“Our victim will have to process this for the rest of her life,” Weis said. “I’m just thankful that we were able to not only stop this horrendous abuse from continuing, but to prevent this predatory child sex offender from abusing anyone else in the future. This is truly a case where a very lengthy prison sentence reflects the horrific actions of this child predator.”

Each count of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child is a class X felony. English was given 15 years on each of the four separate counts, each to be served consecutively or back to back.

Because of the nature of the offenses, English will be required to serve 85% of his 60-year sentence. The case was prosecuted by First Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Shlifka and Assistant State’s Attorney Frank Gorup. English was represented by attorney Charles Ogan.