Hatfield man on way to jail for possessing child porn
NORRISTOWN » A 68-yearold Hatfield Township man is on his way to jail after he admitted to possessing child pornography.
Andrew O’Neill, of the 2000 block of Maple Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to three to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of sexual abuse of children possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between August and September 2016. Judge William R. Carpenter ordered O’Neill to report to the jail on Sept. 5 to begin serving the sentence.
O’Neill also must complete three years’ probation after he’s paroled from jail, meaning he will be under court supervision for about five years.
O’Neill is eligible for the jail’s work release program during his incarceration and that work release can include attending therapy sessions in Plymouth Meeting, court papers indicate.
As a result of his conviction, O’Neill faces a 15-year requirement to report his address to state police.
According to court documents, Montgomery County detectives assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force launched an investigation into O’Neill’s activities in early September 2016 after receiving information that an individual at a Hatfield address had uploaded images containing child pornography between Aug. 10 and Sept. 4, 2016.
The images included children under the age of 18 posing naked or engaged in sexual acts with other minors or adults, according to the arrest affidavit.
Once O’Neill was developed as a suspect through the investigation, law enforcement authorities obtained a warrant to search his residence on Sept. 29.
During questioning by detectives, O’Neill admitted to ownership and usage of the suspect email accounts that contained the child pornography.
“Further O’Neill admitted to collecting child pornography for a period of five years and indicated there may be images on his laptop computer in the apartment,” county Detective James Reape alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Detectives seized computer equipment belonging to O’Neill for forensic examination and later determined there was a total of 899 images of child pornography and 33 child pornography videos on two of his laptop computers and three flash drives, court documents indicate.