Delaware Supreme Court seems to consider the appeal of a former school head master regarding his child pornography conviction. The hearing on Wednesday follows the former Tower Hill School headmaster, Christopher Wheeler convicted last year over the child pornography charges.
According to NBC, Thomas Foley, Wheeler's attorney, argued the possibility that the authorities used a witness tampering in order to have an approval for the search warrants allowing them to search child pornography on Wheeler's computer.
He also believed that the prosecutors never proved that Wheeler ever downloaded or looked at any images of child pornography. He even have no idea that these files are "automatically cached" to his computer from his newsgroup subscription.
Christopher Wheeler is the former headmaster at Tower Hill School in Wilmington. Known graduates of the school include former DuPont Co. CEO Ellen Kullman, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and television personality Dr. Oz.
ABC News also reported, the former school head master was arrested in October 2013, prompted by alleged child sexual abuse but was never charged, however, searched his home and office to find child pornography images instead. Wheeler was convicted on 25 counts over child porn as well as sentenced to 50 years in prison last year.
Prosecutors also claimed that the former head master attempted to tamper or intimidate two brothers. USA Today reported, the brothers informed the authorities about Wheeler sexually abused them when they were still underage, over 30 years ago. They contacted Wheeler in 2013 about their alleged sexual molestation.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew Vella also argued that police had probable cause to suspect witness tampering because of a "pattern" by Wheeler of abusing young boys, including, allegedly, his own adopted son, then paying them off.
Foley continued to argued and said, "They convicted him because they basically assumed he had a dirty mind. He added, "A simple subscription is not a crime, however, with these newsgroups they are dedicated to the free exchange of child pornography," he said. In the coming months, the Supreme Court will issue a written ruling over Wheeler's appeal.
