Abington man admits to possessing child porn

NORRISTOWN >> An Abington Township man has admitted to possessing child pornography and a judge will decide his fate at a hearing later this year.

Patrick Winslow Fox, 41, of the 2000 block of Wharton Road in the Glenside section of the township, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Jan. 12 to multiple felony charges of sexual abuse of children, possessing child pornography, in connection with incidents that occurred between November 2021 and May 2022.

Judge Thomas P. Rogers deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigation report about Fox, including a psychosexual evaluation.

The judge indicated he will hold a sentencing hearing for Fox in March.

The open guilty plea means Fox has no deals with prosecutors regarding his sentence. Fox faces more than a decade in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.

Regardless the sentence that Fox eventually receives, he faces a 15-year requirement to report his address to state police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s

Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan’s Law.

Fox remains free on bail pending his sentencing hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Karla Pisarcik is handling the case. Defense lawyer Matthew Quigg represents Fox.

An investigation of Fox began in November 2021. As detectives were conducting an online investigation to identify individuals possessing or sharing child pornography using peer-topeer file sharing programs they identified a computer on such a network that was linked to Fox, according to the criminal complaint filed by Abington Detective Rick Beaghley.

“I was able to make a direct connection to the computer sharing these files,” Beaghley alleged in the arrest affidavit.

Between Nov. 30, 2021, and Feb. 23, 2022, 12 image files and one video file were downloaded using a direct connection to the computer linked to Fox, detectives alleged. A review of the image files found that they contained photos of children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts or in sexually explicit poses.

Subscriber information for the internet address was traced to Fox’s residence in Glenside. On May 5, 2022, detectives showed up at Fox’s residence with a search warrant.

During the search of the residence, detectives observed a computer in a bedroom/office area, which showed that the peerto-peer file sharing network was activated and downloading files, according to the criminal complaint. The computer using the network was a custom-built computer and tower and that computer and other electronic devices were seized by detectives.

A forensic examination of the computer and tower was conducted. Detectives

uncovered 1,202 images of children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts and/or poses, according to arrest documents. The vast majority of those more than 1,000 images were of pre-pubescent children, including approximately 60 images depicting children under 5-years-old, according to the criminal complaint.

Charges of criminal use of a communication facility and disseminating child pornography will be dismissed against Fox at time of sentencing in exchange for his guilty plea to the charges of possessing child pornography.