Accused child sex abuser faces more charges
NORRISTOWN >> A Bridgeport man accused of physically and sexually abusing five children faces new allegations he reached out to some of the victims from behind jailhouse walls to try to convince them to recant their accusations.
Between June and September, Todd Anthony Wilson allegedly used other inmates’ accounts at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility to make “hundreds of phone calls” to the mother of several of the child victims and “during some of those calls again asked to speak with, and did in fact speak with the minor victims in this case,” county prosecutors alleged in court papers seeking to revoke Wilson’s bail in the sex assault case.
“During this conversation, the defendant attempted to convince the 12-year-old victim to recant her allegations,” county prosecutors Brianna L. Ringwood and Bridget C. Gallagher wrote in court documents.
Prosecutors alleged Wilson, 33, of the 200 block of East Fourth Street, made the phone calls despite the fact a protection from abuse order was in effect since June 12 prohibiting him from having any contact with the victims.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to revoke Wilson’s $1 million bail, arguing “no combination of conditions will assure the safety” of the victims or the community in the event he is released from jail where he has been held since his May 1 arrest.
Ringwood has also asked a judge to prohibit Wilson from having any unsupervised phone conversations while he is being held in the jail.
“In cases of domestic and sexual violence, stalking and harassing behavior exhibited by an alleged offender against his victim indicates a potential for future violence,” Ringwood and Gallagher wrote.
A judge has not yet issued an order regarding the requests.
Court records indicate that on Sept. 13, new charges of obstructing the administration of law also were filed against Wilson in connection with the alleged phone calls he made to the victims. He is awaiting an Oct. 3 preliminary hearing on the new charges before District Court Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar of Lower Providence.
In May, Wilson was charged with rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, statutory sexual assault of a child, unlawful restraint of a minor, indecent assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between January 2017 and May 2018.
The five child victims were between the ages of 4 and 12 and in the company of Wilson at various times, detectives alleged.
Additionally, Wilson faces charges of simple and aggravated assault, strangulation and recklessly endangering another person in connection with assaulting a Bridgeport woman, an ex-girlfriend who is also the mother of some of the child victims.
The original investigation began April 30, when a Norristown woman, who had been dating Wilson, took her 4-year-old daughter to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia after she dis-
covered the child had fresh injuries and was bleeding, according to a criminal complaint. Doctors determined the girl had sustained “significant vaginal trauma,” according to the arrest affidavit.
A joint investigation by Norristown and Bridgeport police and county detectives revealed that Wilson sexually assaulted the 4-year-old girl while she was in his care.
During the investigation, detectives learned that Wilson also had been sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and forcing the girl and three boys – ages 6, 8 and 9 – to have indecent or sexual contact with each other while they were in his care at various times in Bridgeport, according to court papers.
During interviews by child social workers and detectives, some of the children
also described multiple beatings by Wilson with a belt. One boy’s ear was disfigured after Wilson struck him with a belt, according to court documents.
When detectives interviewed Wilson he claimed he walked in on the children having sex and instructed them to “show him what they had been doing”
and that after they showed him what they were doing he would “beat them,” according to the criminal complaint.
At the time of Wilson’s arrest, county District Attorney Kevin R. Steele characterized the allegations as “a horrible case involving the sexual abuse of young and vulnerable children.”