Hatboro Man Who Allegedly Possessed Electronic Images Of Child Porn Is Arraigned

HATBORO, PA — A 60-year-old Hatboro man who had allegedly been viewing sexually explicit images of young children for years is facing 100 felony counts of possessing child pornography after a local judge found he can stand trial on the criminal counts, according to court records and media reports.

David Stewart Winter, of the unit block of Drexel Road, faces a formal arraignment in Montgomery County Court on Oct. 20 after Magisterial District Judge Paul N. Leo determined there was enough evidence to bring the case to trial following a recent preliminary arraignment, the record shows.

Winter was arrested after special investigators with the Montgomery County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a cyber tip by Internet search engine company Yahoo Inc. about a sexually explicit image depicting an underage female child that was connected to an IP addressed traced to Winter's home, according to The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, which had announced Winter's arrest in late June.

During the course of the investigation, detectives said they determined the reported image to be that of a child between the ages of 5 and 7 years old who had been in a sexually explicit pose.

Investigators subsequently obtained a search warrant and after serving the warrant at Winter's home, they discovered 4,797 child pornographic images on various seized electronic devices, including a desktop computer, flash drives, hard drives, a tablet and a cellphone, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Many of the still images and videos depicted infants and toddlers who were being sexually abused by an adult individual, prosecutors stated.

Winter allegedly admitted to having viewed child pornography for many years for the purpose of sexual gratification, according to a news report in the Pottstown Mercury.

Prosecutors originally charged Winter with 200 felony counts of possessing child pornography, as well as one count of criminal use of a communications facility, but the magisterial district court docket sheet in the case shows that Winter was held for court on 100 felony counts while another 100 were subsequently dismissed.

Winter remains free after posting $250,000 unsecured bail in mid-June, the record shows.