NORRISTOWN — A judge has prescribed prison time for a former Lower Pottsgrove pharmacist on charges he attempted to sexually assault a female customer at the pharmacy where he once worked, had indecent contact with an underage girl on numerous occasions while she was in his company and solicited nude photos from a second underage girl.
Phillip David Sebrell, 48, of the 100 block of Merion Drive, Limerick Township, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to a total of 4 to 12 years in a state correctional facility in connection with multiple incidents that occurred with the three victims between 2011 and 2022.
Sebrell, who previously worked at Sanatoga Pharmacy in the 1600 block of East High Street, also faces a lifetime requirement to report his address to state police to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Judge Thomas P. Rogers said Sebrell must undergo a psychosexual evaluation and comply with all treatment recommendations. The judge ordered Sebrell to have no contact with the victims.
Sebrell, identified in court documents as a former owner of the pharmacy, no longer has his pharmacist license and no longer works at the pharmacy, according to officials. The Pennsylvania Board of Pharmacy suspended Sebrell’s license to practice as a pharmacist in May 2022, according to Pennsylvania Department of State online records.
Assistant District Attorney Caroline Rose Goldstein sought a lengthy prison sentence against Sebrell.
“We had three victims in this case, two of which were children. His actions called for significant time to get justice for the victims and also to protect the community from him,” Goldstein said. “He had different contact with them, all of which was horrible.
“No one would expect that especially since he was trusted in the community with his role as a pharmacist. Without a lengthy prison sentence, I don’t think there’s any way to guarantee that he’ll stop doing this. This defendant is a complete danger to any children or women that he has contact with,” Goldstein added.
Last October, a jury convicted Sebrell of multiple felony counts of indecent assault of a child under 13 and indecent assault without consent in connection with incidents that occurred over an eight-year period beginning in 2011 when the girl was between the ages of 11 and 17.
Sebrell knew the girl’s family and the assaults occurred while she was in his company on multiple occasions at various locations in Limerick and Cheltenham.
The investigation began in September 2021 when the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth and Limerick detectives received information about the indecent assault allegations.
The victim subsequently told detectives and child social workers that Sebrell indecently touched her while he would “play fight” with her while she was in his company. The girl told investigators Sebrell would pin her down, lift her shirt and touch her breasts and that he was sexually aroused while touching her.
“Sebrell would assault her, then laugh at her and tell her she wouldn’t be believed if she ever told anyone,” Limerick Detective Ernie Morris wrote in the criminal complaint.
When confronted by detectives about the girl’s claims, Sebrell allegedly admitted to inappropriately touching the girl, pinching her to annoy her, but denied that he did so for his sexual gratification, according to court documents.
Sebrell, who was represented by defense lawyer Timothy J. Tarpey, testified during the trial and denied the accusations and suggested the admissions he allegedly made to detectives were mischaracterized and not his words.
Morris was assisted during the investigation by Lower Pottsgrove Detective Daniel Kienle and Lisa Reinhold, a special agent with the Philadelphia Field Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
When Sebrell returned to court to be sentenced on the jury’s verdict, he chose to plead guilty to separate charges of attempted sexual assault in connection with contact he had with an adult female customer during his former employment at Sanatoga Pharmacy. Under a plea agreement, other charges of attempted rape, indecent assault, involuntary servitude and violating the Pharmacy Act were dismissed against Sebrell.
That investigation began in March 2022 when a female customer of the pharmacy reported that Sebrell contacted her by phone, text messages and through the Snapchat app and asked her to send him nude photographs of herself and “that he would pay her for the images,” according to a criminal complaint filed by Kienle and Morris.
The woman claimed Sebrell paid her several hundred dollars over the course of several years.
“(The woman) advised that she continued to send Sebrell nude images, but he offered to fill her prescriptions as payment. (The woman) advised that she continued to send the images to Sebrell in exchange for her prescription medications. (The woman) advised that Sebrell would fill the medications for no cost and would fill them outside of the prescribed refills,” Kienle and Morris alleged.
The woman told detectives there were occasions when Sebrell took her into a private consultation room at the pharmacy “where he would fondle her breasts or buttocks as payment for the medications,” according to the criminal complaint.
The woman recalled an incident in 2019 when Sebrell asked to speak to her in the consultation room and once inside his sexual advances escalated to the point he cornered her in the room, pushed her against a wall and had other indecent contact with her, according to court papers.
“(The woman) advised that she told Sebrell to stop…advised that she did not consent to the contact and did not want Sebrell to have the contact with her,” Kienle and Morris alleged. “(The woman) advised that this continued until she was able to push Sebrell off of her and she fled into the lobby of the pharmacy.”
During the investigation, detectives spoke with a former pharmacy technician at the business who said Sebrell and the victim would routinely enter the consultation room and close the door and that she could not see into the room and did not know what occurred in the room.
Detectives also obtained prescription medication records that revealed inconsistencies that showed the victim receiving more medication from the pharmacy than she was prescribed by her doctor, according to court papers.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the judge at Sebrell’s sentencing hearing, the woman recalled Sebrell “always wanted more, more pictures, videos,” and tried to persuade her to meet up with him in person and tried to offer her money or more drugs in exchange for sexual favors.
“I made it clear from the beginning that I was not interested in a sexual relationship with him but he always brought it up. I always said ‘no,’” the woman wrote.
The woman said that on the day Sebrell tried to sexually assault her she was caught off guard “and couldn’t believe what was happening” and left the pharmacy in fear.
“He knew where I worked, where I lived and I was scared of him coming after me,” the woman told the judge. “I fight every single day trying to come out of this depression, anxiety and fear. I didn’t deserve this, no woman does. He is a predator and preys on vulnerable and weak women and girls to get what he wants.”
Sebrell also pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child pornography in connection with incidents during which he solicited nude images and videos from a teenage girl between June and August 2021.
“Sebrell engaged in explicit sexualized talk with (the victim) in repeatedly describing sex acts and interests,” Morris wrote in the arrest affidavit, alleging Sebrell also sent nude images of himself to the girl.
Sebrell was supported in court by his wife during the court proceedings.
