Mar 25, 2015 3 min read

Michael John Bickel shook as he appeared Wednesday morning in Central Court to face a preliminary hearing on 218 counts of sexually abusing children.

Deputy Attorney General Anthony M. Marmo then told District Judge Curtis Thompson he was adding seven more counts related to two newly identified young victims.

Bickel, 24, of 3241 Bradbury Drive, Aliquippa, alternately clenched his right fist, then fluttered his hand above the chair to which his other arm was chained. He signed documents waiving his right to the preliminary hearing and deputies then returned him to Washington County jail, where he is being held on $600,000 bond.

According to court documents, a special agent with the attorney general’s child predator section obtained a search warrant to retrieve electronic data from Bickel’s cellphone. A hard drive from the phone yielded a series of text messages investigators say Bickel exchanged with a boy who is now 13, someone Bickel had mentioned when police interviewed him March 10.

The attorney general’s office charged Bickel the previous day with engaging in sex acts with two boys who were between the ages of 7 and 11 between summer 2010 and this past winter. Investigators found videos, images and other information on his cellphone at his workplace at Starpointe in Hanover Township.

The latest alleged victim is described as a friend of one of the first two boys, and in the messaging sequence, investigators said Bickel used the 13-year-old as an intermediary to arrange a liaison with a younger boy. Bickel sent repeated text messages to the 13-year-old over four hours Jan. 22, to which the boy did not respond. Messages of a lewd nature resumed Feb. 15.

Also found on the phone’s memory were text and Facebook messages between Bickel and a fourth boy, age 12, occurring between Dec. 7 and March 8, in which Bickel sought a sexual encounter with the youth and nude or explicit photos of him.

“Trust me, there’s nothing wrong with trying things at least once,” Bickel is alleged to have written to the 12-year-old, who cautioned that his mother may read the messages sent through Facebook and rebuffed Bickel.

On Jan. 30, Bickel sent four sexually explicit photos, three of which depicted Bickel engaging in sexual activity with one of the original victims. A Facebook message from Bickel said, “I can’t believe I actually sent it to (you.)”

The attorney general’s office added to Bickel’s charges five, third-degree felony counts of having unlawful contact with a minor involving obscene and other sexual materials and two first-degree misdemeanor counts of corrupting minors.

In an affidavit, the investigator said that Bickel admitted to using his cellphone to videotape himself having sex with the children and downloading “thousands” of pornographic images involving children.