Nude Pics Land Teen in Jail

By Prescott Carlson in News on Mar 27, 2009 9:20PM

A St. Charles teen is discovering that stupid acts at a young age can lead to some serious adult-level consequences. 18-year-old Piotr Rybak of St. Charles is facing three counts of child pornography after nude photos of his ex-girlfriend were found on a school library computer at St. Charles East High School. Rybak allegedly took the photos and copied them to the computer in March 2008, when Rybak was 17 and the girl was 16. The discovery was made during a "routine audit of library computers." (Obviously not too routine if it took a year to find them.) The school then went to police:

"[School District 303] initiated the investigation," [St. Charles police spokesman Paul] McCurtain said. "As soon as they found the images, they went to our school resource officer and reported it."

If convicted, Rybak could be looking at a maximum sentence of 5 years, along with 10 years on the Illinois sex registry. Obviously nude photos of a minor clearly fall under the legal definition of "child pornography," but should the age of the person that takes and possesses them be brought into consideration when issuing charges?