Ex-Bensalem Coach Skips Sex Abuse Trial, Warrant Issued: DA

BENSALEM, PA — A former Bensalem football coach charged with sexually assaulting three children didn't show up for court on Monday morning and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Shannon "Shawn" Westmoreland, 48, of West Chester, was arrested last year on charges that, as a youth coach with the Bensalem Ramblers football program, he raped a 15-year-old. He was further charged with sexually assaulting two other children, one of them a girl who he allegedly started assaulting when she was 4 years old.

Bucks County District Attorney's office spokesman James O'Malley confirmed that Westmoreland didn't appear for the scheduled start of his trial. Presiding Judge Jeffrey L. Finley revoked his bail and issued a warrant for his arrest, O'Malley said.

Westmoreland was arrested last June at the Exton Mall in West Whiteland Township. He is charged with rape, sexual assault, rape of a child under 13, rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault of a child and other crimes.

According to court documents, at least 15 of the charges against him are felonies.

In addition to charges that he raped the 15 year old, Westmoreland is accused of sexually assaulting a girl from the time she was 4 until she was either 9 or 10 years old. He's also charged with assaulting a third girl when she was 6 years old, in 1999, and again in 2011, when she was 18.

Photo courtesy Bucks County District Attorney's office