PHILADELPHIA — A man and two women have been accused of producing sexually explicit videos of children after an investigation that also revealed the man sexually abused a 3-month-old, authorities said Thursday.
John Worman, 39, of Colwyn, was charged in a federal indictment with 51 counts of producing and possessing child pornography. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site that Worman also faces hundreds of counts of rape and sexual assault charges in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Dorothy Prawdzik, 43, of Drexel Hill, and Concetta Jackson, 44, of Collingdale, were charged in the federal indictment with helping Worman produce the child sex videos.
“This was a long-term, planned and horrific exploitation of young children,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said. “According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly manipulated and abused children, even infants, to satisfy unimaginable perversions and they did it repeatedly.”
Police said Worman had installed a video camera in his bathroom wall that allowed him, between 2003 and 2006, to videotape four children as they used the toilet, undressed and showered.
Jackson knew about the camera and helped Worman videotape the children, authorities said.
Police also said that Worman sexually abused eight other children from 1997 through 2006 and videotaped the assaults. Three of the children that Worman abused were infants, one as young as 3 months, police said.
Prawdzik helped Worman videotape the children by undressing them and posing them in front of hidden cameras, authorities said.
Police said they recovered more than 1 million images from Worman’s computer, including thousands of videos that Worman produced of himself engaged in sexual acts with children.
Worman has been in custody since February 2006 and is being held in the Delaware County Jail in lieu of $4 million bail. The two women were arraigned Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia.
Delaware County officials did not immediately return a call for comment.
It could not immediately be determined if the defendants had attorneys.