FAYETTE COUNTY — A Vandalia couple was sentenced Tuesday in Fayette County Court in connection with a child pornography ring.

According to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, 39-year-old Andrew Wehrle and 38-year-old Amber Wehrle each pleaded guilty in May for their roles in the child pornography ring.

Amber Wehrle was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison, three years on each of two counts of child pornography and eight years on a count of indecent solicitation of an adult. She will also serve three years of natural life mandatory supervised release once out of prison.

Andrew Wehrle was sentenced to 26 years in prison, that’s nine years for each of two counts of child pornography and eight years on a third count.

The sentences will run consecutively, not together. He will also be placed on three years to natural life mandatory supervised release once out of prison.

In March 2021, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s investigators, with the assistance of the Vandalia Police Department, conducted a search of a residence in the 600 block of North 4th Street in Vandalia and arrested Andrew and Amber Wehrle soon after discovering evidence of child pornography.

The search was conducted in connection to child pornography charges filed earlier against 47-year-old Ferrell Mason Kissiar of Vandalia who was a former youth pastor in Patoka.

Kissiar was sentenced to 30 years in prison for possessing, reproducing, and disseminating child pornography.

Raoul reminds the public that online child sexual exploitation can be reported at www.cybertipline.com and child abuse can be reported at dcfsonlinereporting.dcfs.illinois.gov.