Authorities Say South Jersey Man Lured Children To His Home By Promising Them Modeling Jobs
By Cleve Bryan
CHERRY HILL, NJ (CBS) – The FBI arrested two Cherry Hill seniors for allegedly luring underage girls to take illicit sexual pictures in their upscale homes.
Sixty-eight-year-old Burton Gersh and 73-year-old Les Sidweber are each charged with two counts of producing child pornography.
"They had a guy who approached one of the young women while she was walking to school in her school uniform and encouraged her to come to one of the defendant's home where she would be photographed for modeling," says First Assistant United State Attorney Louis Lappen from the Philadelphia office.
A criminal complaint filed in U-S District Court describes how beginning in Fall 2010 Gersh and Sidweber paid for two Pennsylvania girls ages 16 and 17 to come to their homes, strip naked and perform sexual acts on each other as well as Gersh.
"Once these men earned the trust of these victims they exploited them on multiple occasions," says Lappen.
Investigators say several of the illicit pictures show identifiable characteristics of Gersh's home including one taken in his driveway with his home address on Hidden Lane and another with a backyard gazebo that has a sign "Welcome to Gershs" with the picture of a lighthouse.
Authorities are holding both men in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.
"One of the things that our office is considered with is the potential that there may be more victims of this criminal activity," says Lappen.
Anyone with information about further crimes should contact the FBI at (855) FBI-TIPS.
Both men face mandatory-minimum sentences of 15 years in prison if convicted.
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