A Bristol Township man is accused of sexually assaulting at least three minors, raping one, corrupting at least two, and providing illicit drugs to feed an apparent twisted hunger for little girls.
Shawn Burke was arraigned, Tuesday afternoon, by On-Call District Judge Charles Jonas based on a 15-count charging document filed by Bristol Township Police that alleges the 35-year-old sexually violated at least three minor females about six years ago among the allegations charged against him. The carefully worded and constructed probable cause notes not all of evidence collected by Bristol authorities was used to file the charges against Burke.
Jonas set Burke’s bail at 10 percent of $1millon as he was charged with, one count of rape, four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, two counts of corruption of minors, drug possession, and other related offenses.
According to the probable cause, in early September of this year authorities were forwarded three referrals from the state child abuse reporting system to investigate. All three referrals led to Child Advocacy Center forensic interview(s). Following those three interviews, two additional interviews were completed. Two of the three referrals of the juvenile victims revealed Burke sexually abused the minors. The victims are referred to as JV1 and JV2 in court records; both name and gender will be left out of this document but their identity is known to police.
A total of five teenagers are victims, police said. However, court records, which this story is based on, refer to forensic interviews of two victims.
A majority of the sexual assaults are alleged to have occurred at Burke’s Dogwood Drive address, located in the Bristol Township section of Levittown.
On 09/18/2024, JV1 attended a CAC forensic interview in which she reported Burke purchased lacy and see-through lingerie for the victim to pose in. On occasions during the lingerie poses, Burke would apparently pleasure himself. He would take out his camera and take pictures while he had JV1 pose for him in the lingerie he gave to the victim(s). During a conversation about nipple piercings, Burke put his fingers into his own mouth and started to put his fingers on JV1’s chest area, he then tried to put his mouth onto her chest area and JV1 stopped him from doing so, the probable cause says.
On separate occasions Burke would provide JV1 with marijuana. She is currently a minor in her teens and was first provided marijuana by Burke at the age of 11. She told authorities when they smoked the weed, she would feel high and not right. She also described an incident in which Burke would take her legs and place them on him, feeling his penis on her legs.
Burke forced the victims to perform oral sex on him and as a result, JV2 observed Burke to have a piercing on his testicles. JV2 also says that Burke had pierced the genital areas of more than one victim. The victim’s forced oral sex took place at his Bristol Twp home. Burke also performed oral sex on the victim(s).
JV2 also reported Burke had various sex toys and would use them on the victim(s), police wrote in court papers.
Burke, the victims reported, provided what they believed to be cocaine while at a motel. As a result of the cocaine use, Burke was unable to achieve an erection but still tried to penetrate the victim(s) vaginally. JV2 also reported Burke had guns in his home. Burke is not allowed to own firearms due to a previous felony conviction, police said in court papers.
Credit: Joanne Ames – LBS
On Nov. 4, investigators executed two search warrants at Burke’s home. One warrant confirmed Burke has piercings on his testicles that the victims described. Additionally, during the search of the residence, numerous extra-small and small pieces of lingerie, swimwear and other items were located that were described in the above by the victims as being bought for JV1 and JV2 for purposes of being photographed. In addition to the lingerie/swimwear, numerous sex toys were found which JV2 described as being used on them by Burke. Forceps, needles, and other items were found, during the search warrant, that would be used to give a piercing, the criminal complaint says.
Numerous photographs and screenshots were provided by a concerned citizen in a follow-up interview on Nov. 14. In one of the pictures, JV1 and JV2 were on their knees with the suspect behind them. JV1 was wearing lacey lingerie and JV2 was wearing black underwear that appears to have a white skull with wings on both the top and bottom pieces of underwear. JV2 is taking the picture, JV1 has their thumbs up and Burke is standing behind them with his hands on both of their heads and is smiling, investigators wrote in court papers.
During the execution of both search warrants, police noted Burke was not home. One of the search warrants included the retrieval of his cell phone. An outgoing call was made, by resident DP, to a contact in his phone with the name of “Dad”. Following this phone call, Burke was eventually located in Middletown Township, but his cell phone was not with him, nor was it ever located, police said.
Burke is currently scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Dec 10 and is now represented by William T. Whitenack Jr., Esq. of Ciccarelli Law Offices based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Recent Comments