Ex-Radnor board president Philip Ahr faces new federal child porn counts

Former Radnor Township Commissioners President Philip Ahr turned himself in to federal authorities Thursday, facing a new set of charges four months after he was first arrested in the child pornography case that prompted his resignation from elected office last year.

In an indictment unsealed this week, Ahr was charged with five federal counts including distribution, possession, and receipt of child pornography.

The underlying allegations largely mirror those from the case brought by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office in October, but the federal charges carry stiffer penalties that could send him to prison for up to 20 years on each count should he be convicted. Two have mandatory minimum sentences of five years.

Ahr, 67, said little during a brief appearance Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynne A. Sitarski. He was led into court — dressed in a button-down blue shirt and khaki pants with his hands cuffed behind his back  — behind a string of prison-jumpsuit attired defendants facing charges ranging from drug trafficking to bank robbery.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said that the prosecution of the state case against Ahr would be placed on hold until the resolution of the federal case. She indicated that her office intends to seek his detention until his trial  —  a decision scheduled to be decided at a court hearing Monday.

Ahr had been released on $100,000 bond in October, after investigators uncovered the illicit nature of his alleged online activities.

Acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, detectives raided his Main Line home in September and found hard drives filled with more than 500 pornographic images of adults abusing children as young as infants and toddlers, as well a spreadsheet Ahr allegedly used to keep track of 1,000 child pornography websites.

Investigators also uncovered activity in online chatrooms where the ex-commissioner allegedly solicited pornography under the screen names "DaddyX and "DaddyXX."

According to court filings in his earlier case, Ahr admitted during the search of his home that he had been "sexting" with unknown people over the internet who sent him images that he knew to be illegal.

But neither Ahr nor his lawyer Mark P. Much has commented publicly on the case since his initial arrest last year.

Ahr resigned in November from his seat on the township commissioners board – a spot he held since 2016, when he was elected to represent a ward that includes much of Bryn Mawr.

A married father of grown sons, he also has left his job as marketing director at Progressive Business Publications in Malvern since his arrest.