WILKES-BARRE — A Kingston man who has been locked up since April pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from allegations he had sex with a teenage boy, spoke inappropriately online with someone he believed was a minor and possessed child porn.
John William Dawe, 40, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, along with one count each of possession of and solicitation of child pornography. All charges were felony counts.
Dawe entered the pleas before Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough.
Dawe was charged in April on two separate incidents. In the first, Luzerne County detectives said Dawe had been having a sexual conversation online with who he believed to be a 15-year-old boy, not knowing that the “boy” was actually a Kingston detective.
After Dawe’s first arrest, county Detective Charles Balogh and Kingston Detective Steven Gibson continued the investigation after learning he had had sexual contact with a 16-year-old boy.
According to police, Dawe told detectives he became friends with a boy he believed was 17 at the hobby and game shop on East Northampton Street in Wilkes-Barre that Dawe previously managed.
Dawe allegedly told detectives the boy would “come into the store and hit on” him.
The boy eventually told detectives that he became friends with Dawe and they chatted on Facebook. At a certain point, their conversations became sexual, and the boy says Dawe requested nude images.
Police say that Dawe had sex with the boy in an unused room in the game store in either October or November of last year, and then again in either December or January.
Vough accepted the guilty pleas Dawe entered in both cases. Dawe’s sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 23. Vough revoked Dawe’s bail, so he will remain locked up until his sentencing.
Besides the game store Dawe operated, he is the proprietor of his own consulting company, John Dawe Consulting, LLC.
Online court records say Mansfield police in Tioga County charged Dawe with child pornography in 2002, and Elkard police, Tioga County, charged Dawe with unlawful use of a computer and child pornography in 2000.
Dawe pleaded guilty to the separate cases, according to online court records. Dispositions of sentences could not be obtained.
A post on Dawe’s personal Facebook page from early August indicates that he had received six weeks of rehabilitation treatment at a center in Chester. Dawe claimed in his post that he was able to make the post in between the end of treatment and going back to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.
