A registered sex offender from Warminster Township was charged by Bucks County Detectives with the online dissemination of child sexual abuse material, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan announced Monday.
Edward Joseph Hockenbury, 42, was charged with felony counts of sexual abuse of children - dissemination of photo/film, sexual abuse of children - possession of child pornography, dissemination of explicit sexual material to a minor, unlawful contact with a minor, and criminal use of a communication facility.
The investigation was spearheaded by Detective Eric Landamia, a member of the Bucks County Detectives and a Task Force Officer with the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children division.
Khan said the investigation began on April 6, 2026, after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) flagged a CyberTip. The report indicated that on Feb. 10, 2026, a user on a social media platform shared a digital image depicting the sexual exploitation of a prepubescent child.
Law enforcement traced the IP address used in the upload to a residence at 335 Elm Street in Warminster, authorities said.
Further investigation identified the subscriber as Hockenbury, a Tier-3 Sexually Violent Predator previously convicted in 2012 of unlawful contact with a minor and possession of obscene materials.
On April 16, 2026, detectives executed a search warrant at Hockenbury's residence. A forensic examination of Hockenbury’s smartphone uncovered CSAM files and screen recordings of the defendant using the chat platform mentioned in the CyberTip and recordings of the defendant engaging in sexual acts on a platform where some connected parties were identified as minors.
Additionally, a review of the defendant’s search history led to the discovery of predatory terms targeting children as young as 10 years old.
“The protection of our children from online predators remains one of the highest priorities of this office,” Khan said. “When a registered sex offender uses digital platforms to exploit the most vulnerable members of our community, we will use every resource at our disposal to ensure they are held accountable. I want to commend Detective Landamia for his swift work in tracing this activity and removing the defendant from our streets.”
This case is assigned for prosecution to Deputy District Attorney Megan Hunsicker.
Hockenbury was arraigned Saturday by Magisterial District Judge Mark D. Douple and remanded to Bucks County Correctional Facility at 10% of $500,000 cash bail.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
