Long prison term for man found with 14-year-old at a Blackwood boarding house
WILLIAMSPORT – A sex offender from South Jersey, who was found with a 14-year-old girl in his room at a boarding house, has received a 30-year prison term for producing child pornography.
David Taylor, 34, was accused of bringing the girl about 160 miles from a central Pennsylvania town to the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township.
A parole officer discovered the girl under a blanket on Taylor’s bed when making an unannounced visit in July 2017, according to court filings.
Man allegedly held woman captive: Indictment brings sex charges against alleged Bass River kidnapper
Taylor at that time was under parole supervision for life due to a 2011 conviction for a sex-related crime with a 12-year-old.
What happened at Blackwood boarding house?
According to court filings, the parole officer became suspicious when Taylor tried to step from his room in the boarding house and close the door behind him.
That behavior was “something he had not done during supervision previously,” the officer said in a prosecution filing.
When the officer entered the room, the account says, Taylor allegedly looked at his bed, then sat on it.
“I asked the person under the covers to show their face,” said the officer, who then saw “a female appearing very young.”
The girl, described by Taylor as “a friend,” initially claimed to be 20, but said she had lost her identification, according to the officer’s account.
She eventually acknowledged being a 14-year-old from Washingtonville, Pennsylvania, a town about 30 miles from Williamsport. The girl also said she had engaged in multiple sex acts with Taylor.
Fight over evidence
The parole officer contacted Gloucester Township police, who arrested Taylor and charged him with sexual assault of a victim 13 to 16 years old and endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct.
A grand jury in Pennsylvania indicted him on federal charges in March 2018.
A fight over the admissibility of evidence in the federal case lasted almost two years, with Taylor seeking to suppress the parole officer's observations and statements he had made to the officer.
A judge ruled the evidence could be used against Taylor in September 2021, leading to a plea agreement in May 2022.
Under the agreement, the prosecution requested dismissal of two other charges — taking a minor across state lines for criminal sexual activity and committing crimes involving a child while required to register as a sex offender.
Taylor, who has been in custody while the case was pending, was sentenced July 11 in Williamsport federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email him at jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: David Taylor sentenced for production of child pornography
