According to investigators, Anthony Lennon was on the run for 13 years before police officers were able to arrest him on violent child porn charges. On the latest episode of Us Weekly’s Uncovered, investigative journalist Kristin Thorne broke down how Lennon allegedly managed to create a new life and alias for himself while staying off police officers’ radars for over a decade.
Thorne explained that, according to police, Lennon went by the alias of Justin Phillips for years, while “he was wanted for having violent child porn.”
During the episode, City of Moore, Oklahoma Police Department Chief Todd Gibson explained that Lennon in 2012 faked his own kidnapping at a Super 8 Motel in Oklahoma before he fled to Canton, New York, where he had family. Lennon then started a new life for himself in Canton, where he attended college and worked at another hotel under the alias Justin Phillips, Gibson said.
Gibson said that police “did some surveillance” and “got actual eyes on him” in New York, which convinced them that Phillips was actually Lennon.
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“So they go out there, they ultimately end up making contact with him as he’s coming out of a store, placing him in handcuffs, placing him under arrest for the crimes here in Oklahoma. And the entire time, he is denying that he is Anthony Lennon,” Gibson said of his arrest in October 2025.
While police officers were confident that they tracked down Lennon, Gibson said Lennon tried to “throw off the fingerprint identification system” in an attempt not to be caught. He explained he did so by burning or damaging the pads of his fingers, though his efforts ultimately didn’t work.
“Obviously, we know who he is. We believe we know who he is, and then we absolutely confirm his identity through fingerprints,” Gibson said.
Gibson went on to state that Lennon will still insist he is “not Anthony Lennon.”
“You’re a coward, and you don’t want to stand up for what you did, and you got caught,” Gibson said in a direct message to Lennon. “You can play your game as long as you want to play your game, and you can continue to say you’re Justin Phillips, or whoever it is you are.”
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Not only did Thorne and Gibson break down how Lennon was arrested in 2025, but they also shared insight into his criminal history. Lennon was first convicted of having child porn in 2008-2009. Several years later, in 2012, an undercover detective caught him sending explicit pictures and videos of little kids in a chat room, according to police.
Lennon’s involvement in the chat room brought him back onto “law enforcement’s radar,” which kept them on high alert when they were called to the motel he worked at in response to his alleged kidnapping.
Lennon has remained in prison after he was taken into custody in October 2025 for the multiple counts of possession of child pornography charges he was first charged with in 2012. The case into his crimes remains ongoing. According to court records, Lennon is currently being represented by a public defender. Public defenders do not comment on cases to the media.
