Robert Richard Bahm, 78, of Lansdale. Credit: Montgomery County Detectives
Robert Richard Bahm, of the 600 block of South Broad Street, was originally charged with 167 counts of child pornography, but 83 of the charges were withdrawn at a July preliminary hearing
A Lansdale man pleaded guilty Wednesday to 17 felony counts of possession of child pornography after more than 100,000 images and six videos of child sexual abuse material were found on his laptop while being serviced by Best Buy's Geek Squad in February 2024.
Robert Richard Bahm, 78, of an apartment on the 600 block of South Broad Street, was originally charged with 167 counts of child pornography, but 83 of the charges were withdrawn at a July preliminary hearing, per court documents.
Prosecutors chose not to prosecute Bahm on 67 other charges of possession of child pornography.
Judge Risa Vetri Ferman deferred sentencing so that court officials came complete background and risk assessment reports about Bahm, who will undergo a psychological evaluation, according to The Mercury.
Bahm, who is free on bail, also faces an evaluation by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which will determine if he meets criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator.
Regardless of any sentence, Bahm would be required to report his address to state police for 15 years in order to comply with the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, per The Mercury.
Bahm was originally charged with 167 counts of child pornography, but 83 of the charges were withdrawn at a July preliminary hearing, per court records.
The investigation began on Feb. 24 at 11:43 a.m., when Montgomery Township Police were called to the Best Buy at Airport Square for a report of potential child pornography on a customer’s laptop, police said.
A Geek Squad employee reported that Bahm came to the store around 11 a.m. to get Microsoft Office installed onto his laptop, and when Bahm was told he would have to leave the computer at the store for the installation, he became nervous and asked for his service to be expedited, police said.
Bahm left the laptop and left the store, according to authorities.
After logging into Bahm’s laptop, the employee plugged in a USB thumb drive to begin installing Microsoft software onto the laptop, police said. Upon going into Windows File Explorer, the “Downloads” folder showed two downloads with inappropriate titles relating to child pornography, police said, at which point Best Buy immediately called police.
Montgomery Township Police seized the laptop from Best Buy and called Bahm to come to the station, police said. When interrogated by police over why they wanted to talk to him, Bahm said it was because of pornography on his laptop.
Bahm told detectives he watched adult pornography regularly, specifically “women in pantyhose,” according to the complaint, but could not give police the names of any pornographic websites he visits.
When Bahm was asked why police would be concerned about adult pornography on his laptop, he said that occasionally pornographic images of children will appear on the screen. He told police the children’s ages are between five and 12 in the images, according to police, and said he has searched for “preteens in pantyhose,” but those searches never showed him child pornography.
A search warrant was obtained for the laptop and the county detectives conducted a forensic investigation, which revealed 100,326 images and six videos of child sexual abuse material, police said. Out of the 100,326 images, 8,000 of them were not duplicates, according to the report.
Police said the children in the videos and images ranged in age from 3 to 7 years old, per the affidavit.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
