A former high school swim coach in the Whitemarsh Township area of Pennsylvania who had previously served time behind bars was sent back to prison for possessing child porn and failing to report his address to authorities while on parole.
Michael Dolan, who previously coached the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School swim team, was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child pornography and failure to verify address as a registered sex offender under the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan’s Law.
Dolan, 43, was first arrested and charged with possessing and distributing child pornography in December 2019.
Dolan’s sentence was imposed as part of a plea agreement, with a condition of his sentence being that he’s prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors while under court supervision. He also faces a lifetime requirement to report his address to the police.
“He’s clearly a repeat sex offender so it’s important that he spends as much time in prison as possible,” said Assistant District Attorney Bridget Gallagher, according to the Pottstown Mercury. “I think that this is a case of arrogance and feeling like he’s above the law. Coupled with a sex offender, I think that’s an incredibly dangerous combination.
“The police did an excellent job of investigating and that’s why we were able to get a significant sentence,” she added.
Dolan was previously sentenced to prison when he pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful contact with a minor for purposes of prostitution and corruption of a minor with incidents that occurred in April 2008 with a 15-year-old girl. Dolan admitted he had tried to offer money for sexual favors to the teenage girl, who he had previously coached, and was sentenced to one and a half to three years in the county jail in November 2009. He was also put on the sex offenders registry.
Court records show that he was released from jail in December 2011.
He became the subject of a new investigation in December 2019 when Montgomery County detectives received a “CyberTip” from the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force regarding suspicious content found on a Google account linked to Dolan.
According to court documents obtained by The Pottstown Mercury, Google uncovered 12 videos and five still photos that depicted children ages 2 to 14 engaging in sexual acts or poses.
“I reviewed all seventeen files and found that the content was child pornography,” county Detective James J. Reape alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Dolan’s cellphone and laptop were then seized by detectives on Dec. 11, 2019, and a forensic examination of the laptop located 137 images of children under 18 years old in various sexual acts.
“No less than 10 of these images were of children under the age of 13 engaged in prohibited sexual acts,” Reape alleged. “Through training and experience, these images were consistent with child pornography.”
In July 2020, Whitemarsh police were notified that Dolan did not comply with Megan’s Law requirements to report any change in address to authorities within three days. Police found that he had moved out of his residence in January 2020, but hadn’t verified his address with state polices since September 2019.