Babysitter begins county sentence

WEST CHESTER >> A West Sadsbury man has begun serving the prison sentence he agreed to earlier this year for sexually molesting two young girls he babysat after befriending their families at a local church.

Shane William Devoe, a 28-year-old self-employed landscaper, was formally ordered to serve an 11½- to 23-month-long sentence at Chester County Prison by Common Pleas Judge William P. Mahon. He had been awaiting results of an evaluation by the state’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board psychologists to determine whether he fit the state’s Sexually Violent Predator classification. It determined he did not.

He is under lifetime registration requirement through the state’s

Megan’s Law, however. He must complete sex offender’s counseling as part of his sentence, which includes five years’ probation after the prison term is completed. Mahon ordered that he not be eligible for release until he has completed at least 16 months behind bars.

Devoe was accompanied to court Thursday by his attorneys, Robert J. Donatoni and Stuart Crichton of West Chester, who along with Assistant District Attorney Megan King, of the DA’s Child Abuse Unit, had negotiated the plea agreement.

He pleaded guilty in February to two separate counts of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minor, both graded as a thirddegree felony punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison. He had been free on bail since then.

King read statements from the victims’ families at the hearing, which was attended by supporters on both sides of the case.

According to court documents, two separate victims from two separate families for which Devoe babysat between November 2015 and June 2016 reported his behavior last year.

In the first complaint, the victim was an 11-year-old. The victim in June told police she knew Devoe as her babysitter, and that he was a friend from the church in Parkesburg her family attended. She told the interviewer that Devoe was doing something he should not be doing, specifically molesting her while they sat on a couch at her home while watching television and her parents were out of the room.

The second complaint came in July when a 10-yearold girl told police she would go to Devoe’s home to be babysat, and that while they were watching television, he would put his hand on her leg and touch her bottom, and molest her under her clothing.

She said after this occurred on several occasions, she told Devoe to stop. He then punished her by spanking her.

The girl’s mother told police that Devoe had been babysitting for her three daughters once a week for several months.