A Pennsylvania man faces several life prison sentences after being accused of hundreds of instances of rape and molestation of children under the age of 15. The man allegedly had access to the children through his employment as a pediatrician, serving as a reminder of the fine line of propriety that must be carefully toed by people who work with children in a professional setting.

The pediatrician is originally from Philadelphia, but was working as a pediatrician in Lewes, Delaware for several years leading up to his sex crimes arrest in February of 2010.

At the time of his arrest, the pediatrician was indicted on over 470 criminal charges, accused of raping, exploiting and molesting more than 100 child patients under his care. In April of that year, 58 additional charges were added to the indictment as 24 additional children came forward to allege that the pediatrician had abused them in a similar manner.

After obtaining a search warrant for the pediatrician's home and office, police investigators reported that they were able to uncover some 13 hours of video footage of the alleged abuse. The videos depicted approximately 90 incidents of abuse, some of which occurred while the victims' parents were in the same examination room, separated only by a drape.

Following the investigation, prosecutors consolidated the charges to 24 total charges, 14 for first-degree rape, five for second-degree assault, and five for sexual exploitation of a child. Now, the pediatrician is awaiting the judge's ruling, for which a date has not yet been set. If convicted, the pediatrician faces a life sentence for each of the 14 rape charges, plus additional jail time for the other charges.

Source: BNO News, "Former Delaware pediatrician awaits judge ruling on child rape charges," 8 June 2011