NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A former janitor at a high school in Montgomery County is headed to state prison after he was caught with child sex abuse material on his phone.
John Soffa, 65, was sentenced Thursday to 10 months to seven years in state prison after he was found to have an image of child sex abuse material on his phone along with more than 2,000 photos of partially-clothed children that investigators classified as possibly exploitative.
Prosecutor Gabriella Glenning argued for prison time, and said the possession of child sexual abuse material is not a victimless crime.
“People always say that it's not a hands-on offense and try to diminish it that way,” she said. “It's still a child on the other end of that computer screen or that cell phone who's being abused, and that is serving that individual sexual gratification.”
Soffa was a janitor at Upper Perkiomen High School for more than a decade. Last December, police were called to the school by a parent who was concerned when he saw Soffa recording a girl’s wrestling match.
He agreed to show a state trooper the videos he’d taken, but as he scrolled through photos on his phone, the trooper saw what he believed to be nude and partially nude photos of children.
Soffa told the court he never meant to hurt anybody.
“He wanted to spin it so it would be and garner sympathy,” said Glenning. “Well, I lost my friends, I lost my job, I lost everything. Well, those were his choices and his actions when he decided to download a few of these images.”
The judge said while Soffa is eligible for parole in 10 months, the sentence ensures he’s under supervision for seven years.
