Middletown man indicted on 46 child porn charges, more

A Middletown man was indicted Wednesday by a Butler County grand jury on two counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a minor as well as 46 charges involving child pornography.

Phillip Gregory Norman, 53, was arrested by Middletown police in September after a mother called police when her daughter returned from a sleepover and said Norman had sexually assaulted her, according to a police report obtained by the Journal-News.

Norman has been behind bars in lieu of a $100,000 bond since Sept. 17. He waved his right to a pre-trial hearing in Middletown Municipal Court.

The case involves multiple local victims, both male and female, according to Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser. They are pre-pubescent to pubescent age, he said.

“I am not piling on charges,” Gmoser said. “I am charging what we allege he has done and what will be proven in court.”

According to the indictment, the rape charges occurred on Sept. 16 and the charges of gross sexual imposition involving a person under the age of 13 occurred on July 9.

Six counts of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor occurred on July 6 and Sept. 17 and the 40 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance occurred on July 9, Sept. 3, Sept. 6, Sept. 15 and Sept. 17, according to the indictment.

On the day of his arrest, Middletown detectives obtained a search warrant to seize and view images on Norman’s cellphone and laptop computer, according to court documents.

In the affidavit for the search warrant, Detective Tom McIntosh said Norman confessed to performing a sex act on a minor girl and taking pictures of girls’ breasts.

“Norman advised that he viewed child pornography and downloaded images on his laptop computer. Norman further advised that he has taken photos of other male juveniles’ pubic areas in the past and these are contained on his laptop,” the detective stated in the affidavit.

The case has been assigned to Butler County Common Pleas Judge Noah Powers.

Norman is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 8.

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