An area man is facing up to 61 years in NJ state prison on sexual assault charges stemming from incidents spanning 2008 to 2009 involving preying on four young male video-gamers using an X-Box gaming system as a tool to sexually abuse the boys, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced on Monday.

Gary Wolchesky, 28, of Middletown, was found guilty Friday afternoon of 21 counts related to the sexual assaults of the boys, including two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and four counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child by manufacturing child pornography, a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office said.

Wolchesky is scheduled to be sentenced on March 3 before Monmouth Superior Court Judge Richard English.

Wolchesky, a self-proclaimed pedophile, had repeatedly filed motions contesting the case. Jury selection began on October 13, 2016. At trial, the four boys, now young men from Massachusetts, North Carolina and Florida, came to New Jersey to testify, the statement said.

Before and during the trial, Wolchesky advocated against what he viewed as the unfair treatment of pedophiles. Using his Xbox, Wolchesky befriended the four boys during 2008 and 2009, and convinced the boys, between the ages of 10 and 15 at the time, to send their naked pictures to him, according to the statement.

Wolchesky would also ask the boys to masturbate and instructed some of them to penetrate themselves, according to case records. The Xbox message system only saved the photographs he received from the boys for a certain number of days, he would videotape himself opening the photographs that were messaged to him and saved that video to a computer hard drive, the statement added.

On at least one occasion he engaged in a video chat with a boy and convinced the boy to strip for him, it said.

Wolchesky, acting as his own attorney, argued he never instructed the boys to penetrate themselves and all the boys consented to the conduct. He also argued he was merely acting out of civil disobedience to advance the cause of pedophilia, Gramiccioni’s statement said.

The jury convicted him of all 21 counts it was asked to consider.

The case is assigned to Monmouth County assistant prosecutors William Somers and Margaret Koping. Wolchesky represented himself at trial (pro se) with the assistance of stand-by attorney Michael Kuhns, Esq., of Morristown.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office