Man faces charge of taking 51,000 indecent pics
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » The fate of a Villanova student arrested last year on suspicion of shooting more than 51,000 videos and photos of unsuspecting victims in public areas and restrooms will be decided Dec. 4 by Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge James Bradley.
Vincent Kane, 19, of the 100 block of Sterner Avenue in the Broomall section of Marple, surrendered to authorities Oct. 26, 2016, following a joint investigation by the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Villanova University Police Department.
“For his own sexual gratification, Vincent Kane surreptitiously recorded countless victims, including his fellow students, violating and breaching their personal security, which can never be restored,” Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said in a prepared statement announcing Kane’s arrest last year.
Kane allegedly took the shots in the Main Line campus of Villanova where he was a part-time student, at a CVS on West Chester Pike in Broomall where he worked and at Cardinal O’Hara High School, where he was listed a member of the Class of 2015.
Authorities were alerted to Kane’s alleged activities Sept. 22, 2016, when a female Villanova student reported finding a concealed cellphone in a unisex bathroom on the third floor of Tolentine Hall. The student found the video recorder on the phone was active and reported it to the University Department of Safety, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Delaware County Detective Ed Pisani examined the phone with Villanova Police Chief David Tedjeske and found various user accounts for Kane, as well as several videos and images of people being surreptitiously recorded, including an “upskirt” video taken at the CVS on Sept. 18, 2016.
Pisani and Tedjeske made contact with Kane and he allegedly admitted to hiding the camera in the bathroom where it was recovered. Kane said he had been making similar videos for about two years, according to the affidavit.
Kane, represented Tuesday by attorney Michael Fienman, gave the investigators consent to search his school-issued laptop, as well as a personal desktop computer. Both were later seized along with an external Seagate hard drive.
Pisani performed a forensic examination of the devices and found more than 51,000 total images and videos taken from Villanova, the CVS and Cardinal O’Hara High School. Nine videos were of the Villanova bathroom and included multiple victims. Four other videos were taken from inside an unknown bathroom and another 12 videos depicted “upskirt” images at the CVS.
More than 300 images involved a single female who appeared to be about age 12 in 2015, in which Kane allegedly attempted to capture “upskirt” images. There were also seven videos and 12 images of apparent child pornography depicting infants and others under the age of 12.
A jury had been selected Monday, but Kane waived his right to a jury trial Tuesday morning. In exchange, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Boggs said the commonwealth had agreed to lessen Kane’s exposure at sentencing.
No testimony was delivered Tuesday, but Boggs entered several pieces of evidence including incident reports, forensics reports and search warrants, as well as the electronic devices and the images taken from them.
Kane, who remains free on 10 percent of $50,000 bail, is facing five counts of invasion of privacy, three counts of possessing child pornography and two counts of criminal use of a communication facility.
Bradley said he would review the evidence and deliver a verdict in the case Dec. 4.