Internet Sting Over Nude Pics Leads To Guilty Plea In Montco Court

NORRISTOWN, PA — A Delaware County man has admitted in court that he sent a graphic photo of his genitals to someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, but who in reality was an undercover law enforcement agent.

Patrick Eoghan Spillane, 26, of Haverford Township, pleaded guilty recently to a felony count of unlawful contact with a minor in connection with a 2020 incident in which he messaged a photo of his penis to a person he believed to be a teen girl, but who was actually an agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office who was investigating child sex crimes, according to media reports and court records.

While Spillane pleaded guilty in late June to the felony count of unlawful contact with a minor-obscene and other sexual materials and performances, other criminal charges had been withdrawn at the lower court level before the case even got to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, a criminal docket sheet in the case shows.

Those other charges that had been dismissed during the preliminary hearing stage were also felonies — they were a second unlawful contact with a minor charge, a count of disseminating explicit sexual materials to minors, and a count of criminal use of a communications facility, court records show.

An account in the Mercury newspaper says that Spillane had both sent sexually explicit photos and discussed in detail sexual acts that he wanted to perform on the person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

The news report says that the 13-year-old girl persona was actually a state investigator working out of the Attorney General's eastern regional office in Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County.

Court records show that sentencing, which has now been scheduled for late September, had been deferred by Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas M. DelRicci, who ordered a pre-sentencing background investigation done on Spillane.

The defendant must also undergo a sexually violent predator assessment.

Records show that Spillane has been out pending his court proceedings after posting $25,000 bail back in 2020 following his arrest by agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

The story in the Mercury says that Spillane, if found guilty on the single felony count, could be facing between three-and-a-half and seven years in state prison, but sentencing guidelines might allow for a lower sentence.