September 21, 2016
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Mark Wilkens, a 50-year-old volunteer photographer for WXPN's "Kids Corner" to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, the Inquirer reported.
Wilkens was indicted last November for capturing sexually explicit images of underage girls during the radio station's events between August 2010 until July 2015. He was also charged with possessing child porn.
"We were shocked and appalled to learn that a photographer who volunteered at WXPN from time to time has been charged with this crime," Kim Winnick, the station's director of marketing, told PhillyVoice in November. "We have taken this matter extremely seriously and have worked diligently to assist the police with the investigation."
The Inquirer reported that Wilkens was discovered after he attempted to develop the criminal photos at a local Walmart. The machine stopped working, prompting the help desk employees to call police who investigated.
The mandatory minimum sentence for the charges is 15 years.
