Man Sentenced For Child Pornography In Middletown Twp.

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — A Middletown Township man has been sentenced on charges of possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, authorities said.

Shawn Edward Allison, 59, was sentenced on Friday in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas to a state prison term of 2 ½ years to five years, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.

Allison had pleaded guilty in January to the charges. Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller also sentenced Allison to a consecutive term of 12 years of probation.

The investigation leading to Allison’s arrest began in August 2023 with a Cybertip Report from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the upload of an image to a cloud storage server.

Evidence from the Cybertip included videos that depicted sexual acts with a prepubescent female and an adult man, authorities said. Further investigation identified Allison as the subscriber linked to the reported activity.

A search warrant executed at his Middletown Township residence in November 2023 led to the seizure of multiple electronic devices, including CDs containing a significant amount of child sexual abuse material.

A subsequent forensic analysis of hard drives and a laptop belonging to Allison revealed additional child sexual abuse material, authorities said.