Bensalem Man Sexually Extorted 15 Woman Using Snapchat: DA

BENSALEM, PA —A 26-year-old Bensalem man pleaded guilty on Tuesday, March 1, to sexually extorting and harassing 15 victims, including one young woman who later killed herself.

Ian Pisarchuk, 26, admitted to using anonymous Snapchat accounts to threaten and torment dozens of females into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos. Some of the victims were as young as 12 years old.

Pisarchuk pled guilty before President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. to 67 counts of enticing a minor to produce child pornography, possession of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, sexual extortion, stalking, terroristic threats, harassment, and cyber harassment of a child, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.

He was first charged on June 8, 2021, for crimes committed against six victims.

Bensalem Township Detectives Aaron Woelkers and Ryan Kolb found that there were nine other victims that were identified. Additional charges were made on July 27.

A forensic examination of Pisarchuk’s phone found dozens of sexually explicit photos and videos of both juveniles and adults. Information directing them to several additional victims was also found. One of the victims was 21-year-old Lindsey Piccone, who later committed suicide in Tyler State Park in Newtown in 2016.

Piccone left a note behind that said she had been contacted by an unknown Snapchat user on Sept. 5, 2016, who threatened to ruin her life, expose her, and blackmail her, according to Assistant District Attorney Brittney Kern, who appeared in court on Tuesday. In her note, Lindsey wrote that “before someone else ruins my life, I’m ruining mine"; she was found in the park two months later.

Bensalem Township Detectives were able to trace the anonymous Snapchat user back to Pisarchuk. He threatened he would ruin her life if she did not send explicit photos of herself to him, according to Kern.

Pisarchuk's sentencing was deferred for 90 days as he undergoes an evaluation by the Sex Offender Assessment Board.

"I applaud the survivors of this defendant’s insidious attempts to ruin their lives for their bravery,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. “He extorted his victims through his criminal actions. Now it is he who will pay the price, not them.”