American actor, Mark Salling, who was awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges has died of an apparent suicide
According to TMZ, the Glee star’s body was found on Tuesday in the Los Angeles River near Sunland where he had a home. He was 35 at the time of his death.
Salling was awaiting sentencing after entering a guilty plea to possession of child pornography.
The actor had already made a suicide attempt last summer, when he cut both of his wrists, according to a report.
Salling is said to have ‘freaked out’ after hurting himself on August 22.
He is thought to have been taken to hospital after paramedics treated him in his Los Angeles home. According to TMZ, he had screamed for his roommate after cutting his wrists. The roommate then called 911 and helped him.
The actor was reportedly taken to be treated for psychological problems after he recovered.
Salling ‘downloaded thousands of images of child pornography’ between April and December 2015. The papers state he used software to mask his IP address, but twice showed some of his collection to an adult woman, who ultimately reported him to police.
Following the tip-off by one of his ex-girlfriends, he was arrested at his home in Sunland, California, where police found a cache of explicit images on his computer depicting children as young as 10 in sexual situations. They later discovered more than 50,000 photos and videos on his laptop and another 4,000 on a flash drive.
The actor was originally facing a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars after being charged with two counts of child pornography last year.
Salling took a plea deal in December, where he pleaded guilty to possessing images of prepubescent children between the ages of three and five. Prosecutors in response, agreed to ask the judge to sentence him to between four and seven years in jail.
At the time of the hearing, he told the judge he was on medication for depression.
The 35-year-old would also have been required to register as a sex offender, pay restitution and abide by residency restrictions.
