Ex-Bensalem Coach Sentenced For Exploiting Boys (ICYMI)

BENSALEM, PA — A man who used to coach youth basketball in Bensalem has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for recording teen boys on his teams taking showers.

James Hardcastle, 42, also was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $75,000 in fines for multiple child exploitation offenses during an overnight trip to Wildwood, N.J. and at his home in Bensalem.

Federal prosecutors say that, in June 2016, Hardcastle shared a hotel room with three minor boys — ages 15, 16 and 16 — as their coach during the New Jersey tournament. There was no shower curtain in the bathroom and Hardcastle installed a USB drive containing a hidden camera in a power outlet to film all three boys showering, they said.

The year before that, in June and July 2015, Hardcastle tried to record two minors in the bathroom of his home using a hidden camera, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He pleaded guilty in December 2019 to three counts of transporting minors with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and two counts of attempted production of child pornography.

"This defendant took advantage of his position of trust as a youth basketball coach to exploit children for his own satisfaction," said U.S. Attorney William McSwain. "This is heinous and reprehensible behavior that deserves the serious punishment that was meted out today. My office will continue to prioritize the protection of children from such predation."

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Philadelphia Police Department's special victims unit and the Bensalem Police Department.

"The boys James Hardcastle victimized will never forget their trusted coach's betrayal," said Michael J. Driscoll, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia division. "He used his relationship with them for his own gratification, setting them up for his illicit secret recordings. The FBI will never stand by when we learn of the sexual exploitation of children. Such predators need to be taken off the street so they can't harm anyone else."