Bucks Co. Man Met Child-Porn Victims At Comic-Con: Feds

RICHBORO, PA — A Bucks County man will spend 15 years in federal prison after producing child pornography and having sex with a 12-year-old girl he met, along with other children, at the popular Comic-Con convention.

Michael Shore, 35, of Richboro, was sentenced to 180 months in prison on Wednesday for manufacturing child pornography images of multiple victims and traveling to Florida to have sex with the 12-year-old.

Shore was convicted in October 2017. He was found guilty of exploiting four minor victims on multiple occasions over the course of two years.

Prosecutors say Shore met at least two of his victims at Comic-Con, the annual entertainment convention in San Diego, where he worked with his family. His victims included a 12-year-old girl in the sixth grade, two teen girls and one child who is on the autism spectrum.

He corresponded with the girls online at all hours of the day and night, coercing them to take sexually explicit photos of themselves and send them to him. He distributed images of at least one of the children online — showing her face and naked body — while trying to arrange sex with another person.

After talking online with the 12-year-old, Shore traveled from Pennsylvania to Florida multiple times to have sex with her. Local authorities contacted the FBI after her mother alerted police.

A search warrant was executed on Shore's home and federal agents recovered more than 2,500 child porn images that he had downloaded over an eight-year period.

Prosecutors say Shore confessed to the FBI on the day they searched his home. He later pleaded guilty to a 10-count federal indictment charging him with manufacturing, distributing, and possessing child pornography, as well as enticing a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

"Michael Shore is a serial sexual predator who took advantage of some of the most vulnerable among us – young children, one of whom has autism. This criminal behavior is reprehensible," said U.S. Attorney William McSwain. "Further, at least one of these children will continue to be victimized for years to come because Shore shared explicit images of her on the internet with others. Fortunately, he will now sit behind bars where he belongs for many years, unable to victimize anyone else in the mean time."

Shore's sentence also included lifetime supervised release. He will be banned from contacting any of his victims or their families and have his internet usage restricted for life. He also must register as a sex offender under the sentence, by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy R. Savage.