CENTRALIA, IL — Bail was set at half-million dollars Thursday in Marion County Court for a 24-year-old Centralia man charged with multiple child sex crimes. Thomas M. Smith was charged Thursday morning in Marion County Court with two Class X felonies for predatory criminal sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 and Class 2 felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 13. In a separate case he was charged with Class 2 felony violation of the sex offender registration.

Smith was already a registered sexual predator at the time of this latest arrest. It appears the initial crime and conviction that landed Smith on the Registry occurred when he was a juvenile in Clinton County, so any associated court and correctional information is sealed. He has since been convicted in 2015 of possessing child pornography on his computer and violating the sex offender registration then in 2017 he was convicted of child sex offender loitering and child sex offender communicating on the internet – all in Clinton County. He was then convicted in 2020 in Clinton County of violating the sex offender registration.

If Smith is able to post bond in the Marion County case, he’s prohibited from having unsupervised contact with any minor under the age of 18 or any contact with the alleged victim. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for June 29 along with a first appearance with his court appointed attorney.