Former Radnor Commissioner Waives Hearing In Child Porn Case

Phil Ahr, the former Radnor Township Commissioner facing numerous counts of child pornography related charges, waived his hearing at a formal arraignment on Wednesday, Jan. 3, effectively putting his case to track to a trial, according to court records.

There is no date for a pretrial hearing as of Thursday evening.

On Oct. 11, Ahr, 67, of Rosemont, was hit with 10 counts of disseminating child pornography, 50 counts of child pornography possession, 60 counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and 10 counts of attempted dissemination of child pornography. All of these charges are felonies.

The charges stem from an investigation led by Delaware County authorities.

Ahr was released from custody after posting 10 percent of $100,000 bail on Oct. 11.

The investigation into Ahr's alleged crimes was launched in Aug. 31 and made public in late September, but authorities did not say what the nature of the investigation was at the time.

That day, investigators learned from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone, later identified as Ahr, uploaded and shared images of suspected child pornography through a Yahoo Messenger account, according to the Delaware County District Attorney's office.

That same day, a subpoena was issued to Verizon requesting the subscriber of the IP address, which was revealed to be Ahr's IP address, the DA's office said.

Then on Sept. 21, authorities executed a search warrant on Ahr's Radnor home, the DA's office said.

Ahr was home and spoke with detectives, telling them he had been "sexting" online with people and that the purpose of the chats was sexual in nature, the DA's office said.

According to Ahr, he used Yahoo Messenger to "sext" with unknown individuals, which involved sexual talk about children, the DA's office said.

Ahr also told detectives that during one of these conversations, an unknown person sent him about one dozen child pornography images of girls who Ahr estimated to be approximately 13 years-old, the DA's office said.

Some of the images involved female children engaging in sex acts with adult males, according to the DA's office.

Ahr admitted to detectives that he sent and received images of child pornography to and from an individual he was chatting with, according to the DA's office.

The DA's office said Ahr stated, "obviously I knew the images were illegal and don't know how I could say otherwise."

Investigators found video and numerous graphic images depicting children engaged in sex acts, as well as numerous chat logs between in which Ahr shared and sought graphic images and videos of children in sexual positions, bondage and engaged in sex acts with adults, the DA's office said.

Authorities also found more than 1,000 web links to pornographic images, some including child pornography, according to the DA's office.

Two computers in Arh's home had Excel spreadsheets on them which appeared innocuous. However, it was later discovered that the spreadsheets contained more than 1,000 web site addresses, hundreds of which were still active and contained child pornography, the DA's office said.

Of those website, investigators found more than 500 images and videos of child pornography, mostly showing minor children being sexually abused by adult males and females, the DA's office said.

According to the DA's office, Ahr's collection was mainly comprised of prepubescent girls under the age of 10 years, but also included infants and toddlers.

A portion of the images and videos depicted sado-masochistic sexual abuse, and children being sexually abused by animals, according to the DA's office.

"Those who possess and share child pornography directly contribute to the appalling exploitation of innocent children and our detectives with the ICAC Task Force are actively working to locate and arrest these perpetrators," District Attorney Jack Whelan said. "As an elected individual and Chairman of Radnor Board of Commissioners, Mr. Ahr took an oath to serve and protect the residents, and for that reason we hold him to a higher standard of conduct. I would like to commend Sgt. Kenneth Bellis, Det. Edmond Pisani, Detective Chris Tankelewicz and the entire ICAC Task Force for their continued work to find and apprehend these perpetrators."

Image via Delaware County District Attorney's Office