A man from Towamencin Township will have to go to court in Montgomery County to face charges that he had child pornography and had sexually explicit conversations online with someone he thought was a young girl but turned out to be an undercover detective.
Thomas Albert Bowes, 39, of Springhouse Court, decided not to have a preliminary hearing and was told to stand trial on charges of having child pornography, sharing child pornography, having inappropriate contact with a young person, using a communication device for criminal purposes, having a crime instrument, and identity theft related to incidents in October 2023.
Bowes will have a formal arraignment hearing on April 24, and after that, a judge will set the date for his trial.
Bowes, who has defense lawyer Andrew Joseph Levin, is free on bail while waiting for his trial.
Bowes was arrested in January after an investigation by the county Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Lower Merion police. The investigation began in October 2023 on multiple social media platforms. During the investigation, detectives created fake profiles and posted on these platforms, according to a criminal complaint filed by Conshohocken Detective William Walter and Lower Merion Detective John Mick, who are task force members.
On October 4, 2023, Bowes allegedly responded to a post on the app “Whisper” that showed a ninth-grade girl with a photo that said “Save me from school!!!” He then had a long, sexually explicit conversation with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl, but turned out to be an undercover detective, according to court papers.
During the conversation, Bowes allegedly sent several photos, including one of a woman and a man that he falsely claimed to be. Court papers show.
However, detectives found that the photo of the man and woman came from a private Instagram account of the woman. Bowes had known the owner of the account over a decade ago, but she didn't give him permission to use her photos, according to the complaint.
Detectives also traced the internet address linked to the email account on the Whisper app to Bowes’ residence on Springhouse Court in Towamencin.
On November 16, detectives went to Bowes’ residence with a search warrant and took his cellphone.
“Thomas Bowes did admit he was responsible for the conversation on Whisper with what he believed to be a thirteen-year-old female but his intention wasn’t to meet with her,” Walter and Mick alleged in the criminal complaint, adding Bowes also admitted to lifting the photo of the woman and man from Instagram without their permission.
When detectives examined Bowes’ cellphone they found multiple videos and photos showing young people in various states of nudity and sexual acts, which were considered child pornography, according to the arrest affidavit.
Caroline Goldstein, who leads the district attorney’s Family Protection Unit, is prosecuting the case.
Prosecutors previously stated that county detectives, along with specially trained and sworn detectives from police departments throughout Montgomery County, regularly collaborate with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force to actively investigate internet crimes that exploit children and protect them from internet predators.
