Man Who Hid Video Camera In Bathroom Sentenced In Federal Case

STREAMWOOD, IL —A Streamwood man who admitted to hiding a video camera in a public bathroom in DuPage County was sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison for enticing a 16-year-old boy to produce sexually explicit videos of himself. Michael Liedtke, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography for coercing the teen to send the two videos to him over his cellphone, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities searched Liedtke's home last year and found an external disk drive that contained 29 images and six videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to news release. Each of the children depicted in the images and videos was identified as a known child victim by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

As part of his December 2019 plea agreement, Liedtke also admitted to hiding a video camera in the ceiling of a public restroom at the DuPage County Training Academy in Carol Stream. The recordings from the camera showed the unclothed body parts of 400 people using the restroom, including about 300 children under the age of 18 years old.

After pleading guilty in December in federal court, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss the state criminal charges filed against Liedtke, according to the news release.

“I would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their work in removing this sexual predator from society,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “Mr. Liedtke’s deviant actions demonstrate his complete disregard for others and society as a whole. While this has been a very disturbing case, Mr. Liedtke’s guilty plea and nearly seven-year sentence underscores the close partnership shared by local and federal authorities working together to keep our communities safe.”

Authorities encourage anyone who may have been the victim of sexual exploitation to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to www.missingkids.com/home or by calling 1-800-843-5678.