A former Philadelphia police officer pleaded guilty on Oct. 20 to multiple criminal charges of sexual abuse of children and women as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced.
Patrick Heron, 54, was facing 218 criminal charges relating to allegations that, over the course of a decade, he allegedly abused and assaulted dozens of women and girls, took photographs and videos of them being assaulted without their consent, and attempted to intimidate them into remaining silent about the alleged abuse.
If the former officer—who was being held on $2 million bail—were convicted of the criminal charges filed against him, he would have faced more than 1,300 years in prison.
Instead, Mr. Heron on Friday accepted a plea deal of between 15 and 40 years behind bars.
In return, he pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, two counts of sexual abuse of children, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, official oppression, kidnapping of a minor, indecent assault, forgery, and stalking for five criminal cases brought against him by the district attorney’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
Heron Retires From Police Force
Many of the alleged incidents took place while he was on duty, officials said.
In one such incident, of which video footage was obtained by investigators, Mr. Heron could be seen “encouraging a woman as she was using intravenous drugs in the back of his patrol vehicle, before sexually assaulting her.”
Mr. Heron retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2019.
Sentencing Avoids ‘Retraumatization of Victims’
However, the investigation later brought to light the dozens of images and video footage.“While the Commonwealth was fully prepared to take Patrick Heron to trial for what we know to be his yearslong predation of vulnerable women and girls while he wore a badge, we are comfortable with this conviction which avoids a jury trial and the inevitable retraumatization of victims and witnesses,” Special Investigations Unit Supervisor Lyandra Retacco said in a statement announcing Mr. Heron’s guilty plea.
“The survivors who were prepared to testify against Patrick Heron have expressed to us their relief that he is being held accountable and can no longer hurt another girl or woman. I want to say to them and to all of the survivors of Patrick Heron’s depraved crimes that this District Attorney’s Office is here to support survivors. We understand that this conviction is no substitute for the services and healing that you are desperately owed,” Ms. Retacco added.
Mr. Heron’s attorney, Anthony List, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that he hoped the plea deal would allow the victims to move on from the trauma and avoid having to testify.
He also noted his client had to “consider the wellbeing of his family” when accepting the plea deal.
“They’ve already been bullied on social media about this for over a year now and a trial would have made rhinos only worse for them,” he said.
