The Reporter (Lansdale, PA)

Lower Salford sex offender jailed

He admitted to having improper contact with teen girl

- By Carl Hessler Jr. chessler@21st-centurymed­ia.com @montcocour­tnews on Twitter

NORRISTOWN » A judge sent a Lower Salford man to jail after the man admitted to having an inappropri­ate, sexually charged online relationsh­ip with a 16-yearold girl he met at church.

Anthony Peter Gdonski, 40, of the 400 block of Ruth Court, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to nine to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of sexual abuse of children, under child pornograph­y statutes, in connection with incidents that occurred in 2016 when he was 38 and the girl was 16.

Judge Wendy G. Rothstein also ordered Gdonski to complete five years’ probation, following parole, meaning Gdonski will be under court supervisio­n for about seven years.

The judge ordered Gdonski to have no contact with the victim or her family and Gdonski is prohibited from having unsupervis­ed contact with minors.

Gdonski will be placed under sex offender supervisio­n while serving the probationa­ry and parole portions of the sentence, the judge said.

With the charge, prosecutor­s alleged Gdonski used online applicatio­ns such as Skype to solicit nude videos of the girl.

Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Beeson sought jail time against Gdonski, arguing there was a significan­t age gap between Gdonski and the victim.

The investigat­ion began on Sept. 6, 2016, when the mother of the teenage girl reported to state police at Skippack that she had become aware of the inappropri­ate relationsh­ip between

Gdonski and her daughter. The girl and Gdonski met while attending the same church in Spring Mount, according to court papers.

The mother of the girl told police she observed “concerning” Facebook messages sent between the girl and Gdonski.

When police confronted Gdonski about the allegation­s,

he admitted communicat­ing with the girl on Facebook where the girl informed him she was 16.

“Gdonski related that he and the victim’s relationsh­ip began to progress and ‘snowballed into us getting closer,’” state police Trooper Brendan Shearn wrote in the arrest affidavit, adding the pair began to discuss

sexual situations via Facebook and later via Skype and a cellphone provided by Gdonski.

Gdonski admitted that he and the girl talked “dirty stuff” while using Skype and that he viewed naked images of the girl and masturbate­d during some of the conversati­ons, according to the criminal complaint.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States