Lower Merion man draws jail for possessing child porn
A Lower Merion man who told police he was addicted to pornography faces time behind bars and sexual offender treatment after he admitted to possessing child pornography on his home computer.
Richard Joseph QuinnSimons, 34, of the unit block of South Cricket Terrace in the Ardmore section of the township, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to six to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between September and December 2018.
Judge Henry S. Hilles III, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, ordered Quinn-Simons to report to the jail on Aug. 30 to begin serving the sentence. The judge added Quinn-Simons will be eligible for the jail’s work release program but only after serving three months of the jail term.
Quinn-Simons also must complete four years’ probation following parole, meaning Quinn-Simons will be under court supervision for about six years. The judge ordered QuinnSimons to have no contact with minors.
Additionally, Quinn-Simons will be under sex offender supervision and faces a 10-year requirement to report his address to state police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
The investigation began in September 2018, when undercover state police troopers who were conducting online investigations searching for offenders sharing child pornography located suspicious activity on a computer network ultimately linked to Quinn-Simons, according to court papers. Investigators were able to make a direct connection to QuinnSimons’ electronic device and downloaded and viewed about 40 images of suspected child pornography, according to the arrest affidavit.
Some of the images depicted girls as young as four years old involved in sexual acts or poses, the criminal complaint alleged.
Armed with a search warrant, police went to Quinn-Simons’ Lower Merion home on Dec. 5, 2018. During questioning by police, Quinn-Simons allegedly stated he was familiar with file sharing and was able to accurately describe the process used to download files from a file sharing network, according to the arrest affidavit filed by State Police Trooper Mark Gibble, of the state police computer crime unit.
“Quinn-Simons indicated that he has a pornography addiction and was having difficulty with sexual arousal when viewing traditional pornography,” Gibble alleged in the criminal complaint. “Quinn-Simons began downloading and viewing more graphic pornography including bestiality and child pornography. Quinn-Simons was able to remember when and where he downloaded the videos of child pornography.”
Investigators alleged they located a folder on an external hard drive of Quinn-Simons’ computer that contained more than 100 videos of suspected child pornography.
Other charges of criminal use of a communication facility were dismissed against Quinn-Simons as part of the plea agreement.