Drexel student, N.J. dentist held in online sex sting

A Drexel University graduate student and a New Jersey dentist have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected online sexual predators in suburban Philadelphia, authorities said yesterday.

Bensalem police said their Special Victims Unit had monitored an explicit sexual online chat that the men had with an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl.

The dentist, John Lackner, 44, a Cherry Hill resident with a practice in Vineland, N.J., was arrested when he showed up Tuesday night at a Bensalem shopping center to meet the girl, police said. Lackner had been communicating with her since January, police said.

The student, Arun Kurikote-Antony, 24, of West Philadelphia, was arrested Feb. 16 when he tried to meet the girl at a Bensalem location. - Edward Colimore