A Towamencin man is facing dozens of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from a nine-month investigation by the Towamencin Township Police Department into the online sexual abuse of children.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation began in October 2019 after police received a referral from Childline regarding a man—identified as 54-year-old Sean Dallas—engaging in inappropriate communications with underage males. Over the weeks and months that followed, investigators executed a series of search warrants on Dallas’ iPhone, iPad and social media accounts, uncovering a series of sexually explicit conversations that Dallas had with boys ranging between 11-and-16-years-old, police said.
Investigators said Dallas would communicate with boys via Instagram and Snapchat. When the search warrant was executed on Dallas’ Instagram account, detectives said they recovered thousands of images and videos, some of which included teens and pre-teens in various stages of undress and others of underage males engaging in sexual activity, the report states.
Also detailed in the results of the search warrant were multiple conversations in which Dallas allegedly asked underage boys if they wanted to “trade pics” or urged the boys to turn their cameras on and get an undressed, police said. In one case, Dallas agreed to purchase a sex toy for a 14-year-old boy, the report states.
When questioned by police, Dallas initially stated that he was unsure if any of the males he communicated with were minors, though he later insinuated that he knew some of the males were minors, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
As a result of the investigation, Dallas was taken into custody on June 24 and charged with four felony counts of possession of child pornography, 14 felony counts of knowingly permitting a child to engage in a prohibited sex act, seven felony counts of sexual abuse-contact or communication with a minor and two felony counts of criminal use of a communication facility, along with 10 misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors.
Dallas was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Ed Levine, who set bail at $50,000 unsecured—upon the recommendation of the Commonwealth. Dallas was then freed from custody, and his next court appearance is a preliminary hearing on July 15 at 11:30 a.m. in front of Judge Levine.
(All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.)
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