Kewanee man facing several years in prison for allegedly sharing child pornography

KEWANEE, Ill. – A Kewanee man is facing several years in prison for allegedly sharing pornography of prepubescent children.

Andre Gerts, 24, is charged with 10 counts of Dissemination of Child Pornography, a Class X Felony. He is accused of possessing computer files containing videos of children, under the age of 13, performing sex acts, and sharing them in group chats with others, according to court documents.

The investigation.

On Aug. 13, Kewanee investigators were contacted by the Peru Police Department regarding a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from January, police reports show.

The initial investigation by Peru Police led the case to an apartment in Kewanee, of which was transferred to Kewanee Police, police reports show.

The investigation began when a social media provider, that facilitates instant messaging for users, reported an incident of child pornography, police reports show.

Information from a search warrant showed the IP address connected to the social media account was registered to a Comcast account for a man in an apartment in Kewanee, police reports show.

Files uploaded to the social media account, utilizing the same IP address, were obtained by investigators, police reports show.

On Aug. 20, a new cybertip regarding the same accounts was received with another uploaded file, police reports show.

On Oct. 21, police executed a search warrant to make forced entry into the apartment where they encountered and arrested Gerts without incident, police reports show.

Police reports show the following items were photographed and seized:

Apple iPhone
Mail for Gerts
External hard drive
Motorola cellphone (2)
Google phone
Amazon tablet
HP laptop
Asus laptop
Cyberpower computer
HP computer
Amazon gift cards
Wal-Mart name tag
256gb USB drive
128gb USB drive
Playstation USB drive
Samsung cellphone (2)
LG cellphone
Mail for roommate
Home built computer

The evidence was turned over to Digital Forensic Examiners (DFE) from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office where signs of child pornography were observed and confirmed, police reports show.

While digital evidence were being examined, investigators recorded a formal interview with Gerts, police reports show.

Gerts told investigators he first saw child pornography when it was sent to him in a group chat, police reports show.

When asked if it is common for him to share child pornography, Gerts replied, ‘I try not to,’ police reports show.

Gerts told investigators he gets into chat rooms and shares pornography ‘every day’ because ‘it is an addiction.’ And when asked if he shared pornography that includes minors, Gerts replied, ‘I might have, yeah,’ police reports show.

Gerts told investigators he joins random group chats where both adult and child pornography are shared. Adding, he searches for ‘gooning’, which he says is a slang word for being addicted to porongraphy, police reports show.

Gerts admitted to investigators he had about 12 files containing child pornography on his computer, and that he had masturbated to child pornography, police reports show.