Jail for sexually explicit texting

NORRISTOWN >> Police say a Delaware man, after a break-up with an Upper Gwynedd woman, texted sexually explicit photos of the woman to her teenage brother and now the man is in jail.

Joshua Michael McNichol, 20, of Grand View Street, Lewes, Del., recently was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 1 to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of stalking and unlawful dissemination of intimate images in connection with a July 2018 incident.

Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter, said McNichol also must complete five years’ probation following parole, meaning McNichol will be under court supervision for about seven years.

The judge further ordered McNichol to have no contact with his exgirlfriend and her teenage brother.

Upper Gwynedd police began an investigation on July 18, 2018, when a Rosemont

Avenue woman reported that her 17-year-old stepson received four text messages that contained sexually explicit photos of his sister, according to a criminal complaint. The investigation determined McNichol was the sender of the text messages.

Court papers indicate that during an earlier conversation, the 17-year-old boy had

told McNichol to leave his sister and him alone. McNichol responded by sending an obscenity-laced message, followed by the four explicit photographs, according to the criminal complaint filed by Upper Gwynedd Police Officer Robert Pro.

The woman in the photographs subsequently confirmed for police that she was the person depicted in

the photographs and she said McNichol did not have permission to disseminate the images.

With the charges, prosecutors alleged McNichol did, “with intent to harass, annoy or alarm a current or former sexual or intimate partner,” disseminate a visual depiction of the victim in a state of nudity or engaged in sexual contact.