'Mind-numbing' Child Porn Stash Sends Ex-Teacher To Prison

EVANSTON, IL — A former science teacher and IT director at Roycemore School in Evanston has been sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography.

Timothy E. King, 45, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the charge in exchange for state prosecutors dropping six other felony counts.

King, formerly of the 1000 block of Arbor Court in Wheaton, has been held at the DuPage County Jail since October 2015, according to Pioneer Press.

He was arrested after police said they found thousands of videos and images containing child pornography during a search of his house.

In a 2015 statement, State's Attorney Robert Berlin called the scale of King's illegal collection "mind-numbing."

"We will continue to aggressively go after those who exploit the most vulnerable members of our society, our children, just to satisfy their own sickening, sexual desires," Berlin promised at the time.

King still worked at Roycemore at the time of his arrest. Offering grades K through 12, the school has about 235 students.

The school's headmaster, Kevin Smith, said "(King) has been an employee of the school since 2014. He passed our background check process and has been a very productive employee so we were very surprised by his arrest," the Daily Herald reported in 2015.

"We have found no evidence that anything happened on campus," Smith told the Herald. "Roycemore is a safe and compassionate independent school and we put the safety and security of our students above all else."

Top photo: Timothy King (Courtesy of DuPage County Sheriff)