A Villager has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison on child pornography charges.
Gary Paul Slesinski, 71, of the Village of Sanibel, pleaded no contest to multiple charges related to child pornography on Monday in Sumter County Court. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with credit for five months and seven days already served in the Sumter County Jail.
Slesinski was originally arrested in March 2023 after Sumter County Sheriff’s Office detectives served a search warrant at his home at 856 Abaco Path in the Village of Sanibel. He was arrested again in August 2023 after the discovery of more pornographic images.
Detectives assigned to Child Exploitation Investigations and who are members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Federal Task Force received information that an individual residing at the home was distributing child pornography, including an image of a child who appeared to be under the age of 10. After three months of investigation, probable cause was developed to obtain the search warrant.
Sumter detectives ultimately found over 300 multimedia files depicting children pornography, including some of children under 4 years old, on electronic devices that were seized from Slesinki’s home.
The Connecticut native admitted he had used his laptop and cell phone to obtain and view the images. He had used the search terms, “jailbait,” “teen” and “young” when searching for images.
Slesinski and his wife purchased their home in The Villages in 2012. They put it into a trust following his arrest.