Ex-teacher’s aide gets slammer for child-pornography charges
PHILADELPHIA » A former Philadelphia teacher’s aide who sent pornographic images to a 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the attempted manufacture of child pornography and related charges.
Quasim Patrick Cunningham, 31, of Philadelphia, was also ordered to serve 15 years of supervised release, register as a sex offender and pay $1,100 in special assessments, according to a judgment handed down by U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Cunningham pleaded guilty in September to two counts of attempted manufacture of child pornography, three counts of using of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct and six counts of transferring obscene material to a minor, according to electronic court records.
He was arrested by Delaware County law enforcement Nov. 18, 2014, following an investigation by members of the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force into allegations that he was communicating online with a minor in Chester.
Chester City Police Officer Robert Graves contacted Delaware County Detective Edmond Pisani in October 2014 after he was approached by a mother who said her 13-year-old son received pornographic images from an adult man through Facebook. She said the man also tried to send her son gifts.
Pisani logged into the boy’s account and found the pictures were sent by a man later identified as Cunningham, according to an affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. The messages dated back to Sept. 20, 2012, and included numerous conversations that were sexual in nature.
Pisani, Graves, county Detective Kenneth Bellis and Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Michael Fegley executed a search warrant at the home Cunningham shared with his mother on Nov. 18, 2014, where they seized digital evidence including 32 images and eight videos of pornography that were sent to the boy through Facebook, according to the affidavit.
Cunningham, who worked at several afterschool programs in Philadelphia, was also facing charges of unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, disseminating explicit sexual material to a minor and criminal use of a communication facility in Delaware County, but those charges were withdrawn in March.
Cunningham most recently worked in the after-school program at the Henry A. Brown Elementary School. He had also worked in after-school programs at Blankenburg Elementary School, Heston School, and Blaine School.
He has appealed the conviction and sentence to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, according to online court records.