New Hanover man draws prison for possessing child porn
A New Hanover Township man was sent to prison for possessing child pornography on his electronic devices.
Thomas James Quinn, 39, of the 100 block of Worthington Drive, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 18 to 36 months in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between April and November of 2021.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein imposed the sentence as part of a plea agreement. Rothstein ordered that Quinn undergo a psychosexual evaluation and he must comply with all recommendations for treatment.
Quinn also faces a 15-year requirement to report is address to state police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
With the charges, authorities alleged Quinn had more than 300 child pornographic images, some depicting children as young as 3 years old engaged in sexual acts or poses.
Assistant District Attorney Bradley Walter Deckel sought the lengthy state prison term against Quinn. Deckel said each time someone views such images the children depicted in them are victimized again and again.
“It’s a nasty cycle that continues and that’s why it’s a very, very serious crime. A state sentence in this case is extremely appropriate given the content and the number of images,” Deckel said.
An investigation of Quinn began in June 2021 when New Hanover detectives received a CyberTip report filed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding 17 suspicious videos that had been uploaded to a Kik account, and subsequently linked to Quinn, on April 8, 2021, according to a criminal complaint. Kik, which is a free messaging app that allows users to keep in contact, reported the media appeared to be child pornography.
Using a search warrant, detectives retrieved media files sent or received by Quinn’s Kik account during the month of April 2021 and found 128 images or video files.
“I reviewed each of the files and found that more than forty depicted what appeared to be juveniles, some as young as approximately three years of age, engaged in sexual activity either alone or with other persons or juveniles,” New Hanover Detective Michael Coyle wrote in the arrest affidavit.
On Nov. 5, 2021, detectives showed up at Quinn’s residence with a search warrant and seized several mobile devices and other electronics belonging to Quinn, according to court papers.
“A subsequent forensic examination of the electronic devices seized from the residence and belonging to Thomas Quinn revealed the presence of more than three hundred media files which depicted children under the age of 18 engaged in prohibited sexual acts, or in the simulation of such acts,” Coyle alleged.
A charge of criminal use of a communication facility was dismissed against Quinn as part of the plea agreement.