by Alex Lloyd Gross
March 2, 2022
Ian Pisarchuk, of the 3600 block of Skyline Drive, would use anonymous Snapchat accounts to contact females . Once he gained their trust, police said that he would make them send naked and compromising photos and videos of themselves. He did this by lying to the females, telling them that he already had photos of the girls. If they refused to send Pisarchuk what he wanted, he threatened to post his photos all over social media, and ruin their lives. In reality, Pisarchuk did not have any naked photos of them.
Some of the girls he chatted up were 12 years old. Some were older. Yesterday, March 1, 2022, he entered a plea of guilty to 67 charges, including enticing a minor to produce child pornography and possession of child pornography. Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman will sentence him in 90 days, after an evaluation by a Sexual Assessment Board.
The investigation into Pisarchuk began in late 2020 when a juvenile victim came forward to say she was being harassed on Snapchat by someone threatening that he had nude pictures of her and was going to post them online. The investigation led detectives to an IP address linked to Pisarchuk. A forensic examination of Pisarchuk’s phone yielded dozens of sexually explicit photos and videos of both juveniles and adults, as well as information directing them to several additional victims.
One of the victims identified was 21-year-old Lindsey Piccone. In court Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Brittney Kern said Lindsey Piccone was reported missing by her parents on Sept. 6, 2016. Lindsey left a note behind that said she had been contacted by an unknown Snapchat user on Sept. 5, 2016, who threatened to ruin her life, expose her, and blackmail her. In her note, Lindsey wrote that “before someone else ruins my life, I’m ruining mine,” Kern said. Lindsey was found deceased nearly two months later in Tyler State Park and her death was ruled a suicide.
After Pisarchuk was originally charged, and a news conference, He was charged with more counts after at least nine more victims came forward.
He pleaded guilty of doing this to 15 victims. This case resulted in Bensalem State Rep KC Tomlinson introducing legislation to criminalize this behavior.