Ex-Lower Merion Teacher Went Overseas For Sex With Minors: Feds

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — A former Lower Merion School District teacher has been federally charged with crimes related to sex with children in the Philippines.

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Craig Alex Levin, 65, of King of Prussia, was charged by a superseding indictment with additional child exploitation offenses related to his travel to the Philippines. Levin was previously detained in the Philippines but was deported back to the United States in August 2020, where has been held in federal detention since that time.

The indictment contains nine counts of interstate and foreign travel for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, one count of use of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, two counts of distribution of child pornography, one count of transfer of obscene material to a minor, and one count of transportation of child pornography.

Levin, a former special education teacher for who worked at Lower Merion and Harriton high schools until 2007, is alleged to have created and maintained Facebook accounts that he used to communicate with minors in the Philippines for the purpose of enticing them to engage in illicit sexual conduct with him during his visits to the Philippines, federal authorities said.

Additionally, Levin allegedly used Facebook Messenger to send images depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and obscene photographs from his residence to minors in the Philippines.

Between Aug. 29, 2016 and May 8, 2019, Levin is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines nine times to have sex with minor children. Levin was first indicted with child exploitation offenses related to his travel to the Philippines in February 2020.

If convicted, Levin faces a maximum possible sentence of lifetime imprisonment with a mandatory minimum of ten years’ imprisonment, lifetime supervised release, a $4,000,000 fine, and a $1,600 special assessment, and an additional $75,000 mandatory special assessment.