PA - Michael Bickel, Felony Child Rape, Washington Cnty, 1 Aug 2010

Michael John Bickel shook as he appeared Wednesday morning in Central Court to face a preliminary hearing on 218 counts of sexually abusing children. Deputy Attorney General Anthony M. Marmo then told District Judge Curtis Thompson he was adding seven more counts related to two newly-identified young victims...

The latest alleged victim is described as a friend of one of the first two boys, and in the messaging sequence, investigators said Bickel used the 13-year-old as an intermediary to arrange a liaison with a younger boy. Bickel sent repeated text messages to the 13-year-old over four hours Jan. 22, to which the boy did not respond. Messages of a lewd nature resumed Feb. 15.

Also found on the phone’s memory were text and Facebook messages between Bickel and a fourth boy, age 12, occurring between Dec. 7 and March 8, in which Bickel sought a sexual encounter with the youth and nude or explicit photos of him. “Trust me, there’s nothing wrong with trying things at least once,” Bickel is alleged to have written to the 12-year-old, who cautioned that his mother may read the messages sent through Facebook and rebuffed Bickel.

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Earlier this month Google reportedly alerted authorities after some of the images that Bickel emailed to strangers with the subject line, “Got more where that came from,” were flagged, a police report stated.

Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office investigators said they then tracked down Bickel and found a photo gallery on his cellphone titled “Pedo Me,” which contained 475 pornographic files. Bickel admitted to using his cellphone to tape sexual contact with two boys between the ages of 7 and 11, according to the police report.

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