DA: Middletown Man Sentenced to State Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

A Middletown Township man was sentenced in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas to a state prison term of 2 ½ years to five years.

Shawn Edward Allison, 59, had pleaded guilty in January to charges of possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility.

On Friday, May 16, 2025, 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 male.

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.

The case was investigated by Middletown Township Detective Kevin Platenecky and prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jessica Frost of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.