The ex-headmaster of a prestigious Delaware prep school, which had been founded by the du Pont family, had been charged of child pornography.

Christopher Wheeler, the ex-headmaster of Tower Hill School located in Delaware, had been charged with 25 counts of child pornography. Should he be found guilty of all these allegations, he will be facing a minimum of 50 years imprisonment. In accordance with court records, Wheeler decide to rest the case in the hands of Superior Court Judge Eric Davis.

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Wheeler, who was unable to post the $1.5 million bail, had been in police custody following his capture last fall. Sources described the ex-headmaster, who had been hailed as a skilled musician and composer, as well as an airplane owner, appeared emaciated and pale during the Tuesday trial.

Prior to his arrest, the 54-year-old ex-prep school official had been alleged of sexually abusing children. This issue came into light when a Pennsylvania man and his younger brother accused Wheeler of such following the outrage over the Jerry Sandusky case at Pennsylvania State University. In addition to these two men, the ex-headmaster's own adopted child also claimed to have been sexually abused by Wheeler.

Despite these allegations, Wheeler had not been charged with sexual abuse. However, the accusations prompted Delaware investigators to obtain a search warrant for Wheeler's house and office. The search, which was conducted last fall, had been performed to eliminate the notions of possible witness tampering or intimidation on the part of the accused.

Although the investigators did not find any sign pertaining to their original motive for the search, they instead discovered roughly 2,000 images of child pornography in Wheeler's home and in an external drive found in his Tower Hill office.

During the Tuesday trial, the only witness who testified was Sgt. Kevin Perna of the Delaware State Police high tech crimes. In accordance with his testimony, Wheeler subscribed to numerous online newsgroups that were involved in child pornography.

To further incriminate the ex-headmaster, Perna pointed out that Wheeler attempted to "scrub" his laptop computer prior to the arrival of the police officers in his home. According to the investigators who executed the search warrant last October, a "shredding" application had been noticeably initialized roughly 30 minutes before they arrived in the place.

The child porn images used as evidence to prove Wheeler's guilt were discovered saved on a computer hidden inside a closet. Perna claimed that the device was last powered up in 2012. The search of Wheeler's home and office revealed hundreds of child porn photos stored on different computers.

The trial on Tuesday had lasted only two hours and concluded with Tom Foley, the defense attorney, filing a motion to dismiss the case or acquit his client. Abigail Layton, the state prosecutor, was given until Oct. 24 to file her response to Foley's motion.

A few of Tower Hill's prominent graduates are DuPont Co. CEO Ellen Kullman, TV personality Dr. Oz, and United States Senator Chris Coons.

TagsDelaware, Prep School, Tower Hill School, child pornography, Child abuse, Sexual Abuse, Christopher Wheeler, headmaster, Pennsylvania, duPont