Gerald William Spoto, a former Neshaminy Kids Club employee, was sentenced on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, to 35 to 88 years in state prison for sexually assaulting several boys and photographing and filming some of the abuse.

In July, Spoto, 42, of Disk Lane in Bristol Township, pleaded guilty to nearly three dozen counts, most of them felonies, for the sexual assault of the seven victims.

The victims and their families packed a Bucks County courtroom Friday and presented more than a dozen victim impact statements to Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley, detailing the trauma they’ve endured since they were abused by Spoto.

Six of the victims are now adults and continue to suffer from psychological and emotional effects, including substance abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts and sleeping disorders, they said in impact statements.

The victims knew Spoto through his job the Neshaminy Kids Club after-school program.  In some cases, the parents had hired Spoto to babysit their children. On Friday, the parents of some of the victims said Spoto lied and manipulated them in building their trust.

“How sick is this man to prey on my sons,” said the mother of two of the victims. “My sons went through, and are still going through, hell.”

The father of another victim urged the judge to send Spoto away for as long as possible. “My hope is that his last years are spent as lonely and afraid as my son and these boys felt.”

In sentencing, Finley said he felt Spoto needed to serve time for each of the seven victims and ordered that those sentences run consecutively. In addition to sentencing Spoto to 35 to 88 years in state prison, Finley ordered him to have no contact with the victims, their families and any minors.

Spoto was also deemed a sexually violent predator by the state’s Sex Offender Assessment Board, and thus subject to a lifetime of sex offender registration and treatment.

Prior to sentencing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy had called for a sentence in the aggravated range, citing Spoto’s repeated ongoing abuse and his high-level of grooming of the victims, which happened from the late 1990s until 2023.

The impact the sexual assaults had to the victims is “incredible and heartbreaking,” she said.

Spoto was originally charged in December 2023, following an investigation by detectives with the Middletown Township Police Department. That investigation found that he sexually assaulted six boys almost two decades ago.

Two months later, the investigation led to Spoto being charged with sexually abusing a seventh victim.

On July 22, Spoto pleaded guilty to several counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, criminal attempt to commit aggravated indecent assault of a child, unlawful contact with a minor, photographing or filming a child sex act, possession of child pornography, indecent assault of a person less than 13, and corruption of minors.

“This sexual predator is a parent’s worst nightmare,” District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said. “He was someone who was in a position of trust tasked with caring for and protecting their children, when in fact it was an elaborate grooming scheme.  It allowed him to have unfettered access so he could sexually victimize these children. There are few words that adequately express the depravity.”

“I praise the victims and their families for having the strength to come forward and trust the process,” Schorn said. “I commend the outstanding work done by the Middletown Township Police Department and my colleagues Kristin McElroy and Jennifer McInerney on the prosecution team.”

This investigation was conducted by the Middletown Township Police Department Detectives John Beck and Kevin Platenecky and was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer L. McInerney.

Media Contact: Manuel Gamiz Jr., 215.348.6298, mgamiz@buckscounty.org