Couple molests and tapes children as young as three months old

Pa. jury weighs "excruciating" child-porn case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 09/16/2008 04:41:13 PM EDT



PHILADELPHIA—A federal jury began deliberating the case of a man charged with producing thousands of images of himself sexually abusing children, including three infants, one just three months old.

John Jackey Worman, 41, of Colwyn had cameras mounted in the bathroom of a friend who baby-sat children in her Philadelphia-area rowhouse, prosecutors said.

The jury viewed what authorities called "excruciating" evidence for more than a week before starting their deliberations late Tuesday. Worman is charged with 51 counts of producing and possessing child pornography.
"It's excruciating to have to look at it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella told jurors, some of whom had looked away from their monitors during the trial. Worman had no such revulsion, she said.

"This defendant was riveted. He couldn't take his eyes off it," Rotella said.
Worman's lawyer, Mark Cedrone, told jurors Tuesday that they may hate his client, but still had a duty to see if the government proved its case on each charge.

Worman made the bathroom videotapes over a three-year period between 2003 and 2006, capturing children as they undressed and showered at baby sitter Concetta Jackson's home in Collingdale. Jackson, who pleaded guilty before trial, knew about the camera and assisted Worman with the filming, authorities said.

Worman sexually abused eight other children from 1997 through 2006, including five forced to engage in sex acts that were also videotaped and saved in Worman's computer, the January 1997 indictment charged.
Police recovered more than 1 million images from Worman's computer, they said.

Co-defendant Dorothy Prawdzik of Drexel Hill posed children in front of the hidden video cameras, prosecutors said. The jury will deliberate her case after reaching a verdict on the Worman counts.

Worman has been in custody since February 2006.