Central Bucks school custodian charged with possessing child pornography
In an email to parents, Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh wrote that he worked hours outside the student school day and was placed on leave "immediately" after the district learned of the allegations.
A Central Bucks School District custodian has been charged with possessing dozens of videos of children and teens being sexually abused, and has been placed on leave pending an investigation, school officials announced in an email to parents Wednesday.
Robert Murphy Jr., 28, of Perkasie, was charged last week with possession of child pornography and criminal use of communication facility, according to court records.
According to a criminal complaint, Bucks County detectives first began officially investigating Murphy in July after receiving a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a Google account that had been shut down after a user attempted to save “child erotica/anime and child sexual abuse material” in a Google Drive file.
In August, Murphy would tell detectives that he knew that his Google Cloud account had been closed because of the videos and that he was under investigation, but opted not to delete all the videos, according to the complaint.
He also told detectives he had more than 100 child pornography videos saved in a password-protected app on his cell phone, police said. The children in the videos and images ranged from toddlers to teenagers, according to the complaint.
Attempts to reach Murphy on Wednesday night were unsuccessful, and an attorney for Murphy was not listed on court records.
In an email to district parents Wednesday, Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh wrote that Murphy, a member of the second-shift facilities staff, worked hours outside the student school day and was placed on leave “immediately” after the district learned of the allegations.
“The circumstances of this arrest are not school-related, do not involve Central Bucks students, and Mr. Murphy is not alleged to have possessed these materials on school grounds,” Lucabaugh wrote.
Central Bucks School Board meeting minutes show Murphy was employed with the district as a temporary custodian since at least January 2020 and worked at multiple schools. According to police, he was employed with the district at least through the first quarter of 2022.