Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Enticement and Coercion of a Minor

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Peter N. Allen, age 33, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, pled guilty today to attempting to entice a minor to engage in a sexual encounter with him. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas F. Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea, Allen admitted that, between February 2020 and May 2020, he exchanged multiple sexually explicit messages online with an undercover officer posing as an 11-year-old girl in an attempt to entice the child into having sex with him. Allen also admitted that, on May 14, 2020, he traveled from Pennsylvania to a fast-food restaurant parking lot in New York near where he believed the child lived to meet her for sex.

At sentencing on July 21, 2021, Allen faces at least 10 years and up to life in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors. Allen also will have to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Allen’s case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force. This task force is comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Gadarian as a part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.