Whitpain Police had arrested the accused in 2014 on other charges
An Upper Providence Township-registered, sexually violent predator, who was sentenced to three to six years in prison in 2016 for aggravated indecent assault on a minor, was arrested and charged this month with 21 felonies related to child pornography and corruption of minors by Upper Providence Township Police.
Gary Justin Russell, 35, of the 60th block of Heron Court, Phoenixville, was charged July 15 by authorities with 19 counts of child pornography and two counts of corruption of minors for incidents alleged to have occurred on June 4, 2024 on a home on Quail Drive South, according to the criminal complaint.
Russell remains incarcerated at a Bucks County jail in lieu of $99,000 cash bail, according to court dockets.
Gary Justin Russell, 35, of Upper Providence.Detectives said a parent contacted them about a male suspect, identified as Russell, who showed inappropriate images to a female juvenile and her friends. Police met with three girls, all around the age of 10, who told police what occurred at 8 p.m. June 4, per the affidavit.
Police said the girls were walking around their neighborhood in the RiverCrest Community, when they were approached by Russell. The victims described him as a white adult male wearing dark clothing and a headband, police said.
Russell, police allege, walked in front of the group of girls and then turned to them and said, “Look at this!” Police said Russell was holding his phone which had a photograph of a penis on the screen.
Upper Providence’s Criminal Investigation Division obtained outdoor surveillance video of the incident. They allege video showed three juvenile females walking on the sidewalk at 8:04 p.m. June 4, and a white male wearing dark clothing and a gray headband walking up the entrance driveway of a home on Quail Drive South.
The man was also missing his left hand, police said.
At first, Russell, police allege, was on the opposite side of the road when he walked into the development. Then, at 8:05 p.m., video allegedly shows him looking at the group of girls, running across the street in their direction, and verbally stating something to them, police said.
Russell then jumped onto the sidewalk in front of the girls and continued walking, police said, before taking out his cellphone and using it, while walking three feet in front of the juveniles.
Police identified Russell via video surveillance, open-source social media photographs, and community interviews, per the affidavit. All three girls reported the same timeline of events, police said.
On June 7, police seized Russell’s Android phone via warrant in order to link him to the investigation pertaining to the corruption of minors incident, police said.
On June 14, per the complaint, police received a USB drive with the extraction of digital contents from Russell’s phone. Police were able to collect multiple images and videos of male genitalia, but also found images that appeared to be child pornography, police said.
Police said five vulgar and sexual images of girls between 10 and 12 years old in various stages of undress and exposure were found during the initial search on the phone. However, each “image” found was a series which contained anywhere between one to 35 images, per the affidavit.
Authorities then issued a second search warrant for the purpose of finding child pornography-related images, police said.
Police then found 14 more images of young and teenage girls undertaking the same illicit behavior, per the affidavit. As in the prior scenario, each image listed in the affidavit had a series of up to 35 separate images, per the complaint.
Russell has been a resident of the township since November 2003.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6 at 11:30 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar.
Russell was arrested in March 2014 by Whitpain Township Police on charges of aggravated indecent assault on someone less than 16, and aggravated indecent assault, and later was found guilty by trial on March 18, 2015, per court records. His sentencing required that he register as a Pennsylvania sex offender.
According to the PA Megan’s Law database, Russell is a sexually violent predator, who, as of July 18, 2024, is a transient who resides in the area of Walmart on South Trooper Road in West Norriton Township.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
