Former Philadelphia police officer accused of sexually assaulting young children, witness retaliation

A former Philadelphia police officer has been charged with sexually assaulting young girls, often posing as an active officer to lure them and later retaliating against or intimidating witnesses to his crimes, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday.

Patrick Heron, 52, was arrested Wednesday and charged with multiple offenses relating to sexual contact with young girls, Krasner said in announcing a case that he called one of the most “alarming, sensitive, and serious” his office has prosecuted. Heron, of Northeast Philadelphia, who retired in 2019, faces counts including unlawful contact with minors, computer sex acts with children, indecent assault on a person younger than 13, and stalking.

The crimes took place after Heron left the Police Department, Krasner said. Prosecutors did not say how many victims were involved. But investigators believe that there are more victims who have not yet come forward and they are not ruling out the possibility that Heron may have committed crimes during his tenure as a police officer.

“This is every parent’s nightmare,” Krasner said. “This is every teacher’s nightmare. You got a guy who’s born in 1969 who is going after little kids. Young teens. This is awful conduct at every level. And even more awful when you’re in a position of public trust or were or are pretending you still are.”

Heron is being held on $2 million bail. His lawyer, Pierre LaTour III, declined to comment Friday.

The Philadelphia Police Department did not provide comment on Heron’s arrest. A spokesperson for Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, the city’s police union, said the union was not representing Heron and declined to comment further.

According to Krasner, Heron would send electronic messages to victims in an effort to groom them and coerce them into meeting him in person. Often, the district attorney said, Heron would tell them he was a police officer, despite being retired, and he would solicit intimate photos and videos of the underage victims.

On multiple occasions, Heron had conversations of a sexual nature with children, asking them to send him explicit photos, according to the criminal complaint. One victim told investigators Heron sexually assaulted her when she was a child, and Heron was later found with photos of the incident, the complaint said.

A witness who worked at a Philadelphia public school told the District Attorney’s Office that several children complained about messages Heron had been sending them, calling them “love” and “sweetie,” according to the complaint. Some messages were aggressive in tone and in some, he tried to have students meet him after school, the complaint said.

One victim said Heron sent her money through CashApp and had her send him a picture of her face, according to the complaint. Another victim, prosecutors said, described an incident in which Heron inappropriately touched her when she was 8.

Along with grooming and assaulting young girls, Heron is accused of intimidating and harassing victims and witnesses, both adult and juvenile, Krasner said. According to court documents, Heron was arrested in April and charged with stalking, witness retaliation or victim harassment, and using lewd, threatening language.

As part of his campaign of witness and victim intimidation, Heron forged fraudulent court documents, including one threatening a victim with arrest and another purporting to be a court order to take down a Facebook post accusing him of inappropriate behavior with children, according to the criminal complaint. Heron also allegedly used a device to secretly record conversations and solicited a service to hack one victim’s computer and infect it with a virus.

“This is not only about terrible conduct,” said Krasner. “It’s about a pretty terrible effort at a coverup, intimidation, and abuse of pretty much every process we have.”

On what appears to be Heron’s Facebook page, several people called out his alleged inappropriate behavior with children, posting screenshots of messages Heron allegedly sent young girls to try to persuade them to meet him alone and in person.

Staff writer Chris Palmer and news researcher Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.