2 Cherry Hill men sentenced on child-porn charges

Two men were sentenced Tuesday for bringing two Philadelphia teenagers to their Cherry Hill homes with the promise of money and photo shoots, and then taking sexually explicit pictures of them, authorities said.

Burton Gersh, 69, received a five-year prison sentence in federal court in Philadelphia. Les Sidweber, 73, got four years.

The two pleaded guilty in May to charges of producing child pornography.

Gersh, who operated a seafood company in Philadelphia for several decades before retiring in the last five years, according to his attorney, paid Sidweber several thousand dollars to take pictures of the 16-year-old girls, according to court documents.

One of the girls was first approached for the photos while walking to school in Philadelphia in the fall of 2010, authorities said. A man identified in court documents only as "Roheem" told the girl he could have modeling shots taken of her, and brought her to Gersh's home, prosecutors said. The girl then allegedly brought her friend.

Gersh and Sidweber told the girls they were taking photos for a professional modeling calendar, prosecutors said. Gersh also paid the girls between $100 and $1,000 some nights to engage in sexual activity with him, according to court documents.

Sidweber, of Cunningham Lane, produced a disk with 330 images of one of the girls, including a photo with her in front of a sign that displayed Gersh's address in the 400 block of Hidden Lane in Cherry Hill, and another that displayed a gazebo with a sign that read, "Welcome to Gersh's," according to court documents.

The house also had a pool, a deck, and a tennis court, which were in the background in some of the photos, prosecutors said.

Michael Engle, Gersh's attorney, said Tuesday that his client believed the girls were adults.

"If you looked at their pictures, they appeared like they were in their 20s, so there were significant questions about what Burt knew at the time regarding their age," Engle said.

But, he added, "Burt accepts full responsibility for his conduct, and he has expressed deep remorse."

Gersh and Sidweber will be under supervised release for several years after their prison terms end.