Massachusetts football coach, after-school program worker sentenced on child porn charges

BOSTON – A Cambridge man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for child pornography offenses.

Robert Wharton, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dennis Saylor IV to five years in prison and five years of supervised release. In December 2020, Wharton pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.

Federal investigators developed evidence that a user of the Kik messaging application had electronically transmitted funds to another individual in exchange for access to internet links containing child pornography. The investigation revealed that those funds originated from Wharton and that Wharton resided in an apartment in Cambridge. During a search of Wharton’s apartment, Kik messages that Wharton had exchanged with the person to whom he had sent funds were discovered. In addition, various images and videos depicting naked children were found on Wharton’s phone, including a pornographic video that Wharton had received via the Telegram messaging application; this video depicts a young child performing oral sex on an adult.

According to Cambridge Day, Wharton taught a daily kindergarten program at the after-school program for the Kennedy Community School & Neighborhood Council.

Wharton was also a volunteer assistant coach with Somerville Pop Warner Football, according to Cambridge Day.