Chester County Judge Sends Lansdale Man To Prison For Secretly Recording Women & Girls

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — A Lansdale man has been handed a two-and-a-half-to-10-year prison sentence by a Chester County judge after pleading guilty to secretly videotaping women and girls in various stages of undress at the Chester County and Montgomery County homes that he had shared with his wife and daughters.

Andrew Machalette, 37, pleaded guilty to various counts of child pornography and invasion of privacy in September 2021 in connection with the incidents, according to the Chester County District Attorney's Office.

This week, Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Carmody sentenced Machalette to state prison for his crimes.

"The women and girls who were victimized by Andrew Machalette's voyeurism will be impacted by his reprehensible actions for the rest of their lives," Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said in a statement. "Invading another person's privacy when they are most vulnerable is traumatizing and devastating to the victims. I hope Judge Carmody's sentence gives them justice and allows them to heal."

According to the D.A.'s Office, Machalette's now-ex-wife had given East Vincent Township police three flash drives containing video recordings of different women and girls who were caught on video changing or undressing in the home he shared with the spouse.

The ex-wife told police investigators that Machalette, when confronted by her, admitted to making the secret recordings.

A forensic analyst in Chester County examined the flash drives and ultimately determined that six adult women and two underage girls were depicted in the videos, according to a police criminal complaint filed by East Vincent Township Police Officer Shawn Michinock.

Prosecutors say that the scenes recorded took place in the guest bedroom of the Machalette home, and that the camera on the computer that had been located in that room was set to record video through motion activation.

The criminal complaint states that investigators believe the videos in East Vincent Township were recorded between June 2018 and September 2018.

Chester County prosecutors said Machalette's crimes also took place between 2013 and 2014 in a home in Limerick Township, Montgomery County.

Those alleged incidents were not detailed in the Chester County criminal complaint, and there did not appear to be any court records relating to the Montgomery County case online.

A spokesperson for the Chester County District Attorney's Office confirmed that Montgomery County agreed to have their cases folded into the Chester County case and that the consolidated cases were ultimately prosecuted in Chester County.