Lancaster city man sentenced to prison on child sexual abuse charges | Local News | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

A Lancaster city man who arranged to have sex with who he thought was a 15-year-old girl will spend up to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to child sexual abuse charges.

Daniel Hackel, 23, was confronted by two members of a self-proclaimed child predator group on Nov. 9, 2025, when he arrived in downtown Lancaster to meet the girl. The two people called police and took Hackel to the police station.

Hackel pleaded guilty on May 5 to one count of criminal attempt to commit statutory sexual assault and related offenses including several counts of possessing child sexual abuse material, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.

Police found more than 20 sexually explicit videos of children on Hackel’s phone, and he traded child sexual abuse material using an app, according to charging documents.

Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright sentenced Hackel to 2½ to seven years in prison and seven years of probation. As part of his sentence, he will be evaluated to determine if he is a sexually violent predator, which is as a sex offender with a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sexually violent offenses.

Hackel told police he had an “alter personality” capable of sexually assaulting a child given the opportunity and that the other personality was in control most of the time he was messaging the girl, according to charging documents.

Police in November 2025 said they did not support or advocate for independent groups such as the two people who brought Hackel to the police station or their activities. 

“We will not be commenting on this group or any similar group now or in the future,” police spokesperson Stacia Korman said Nov. 17, 2025.

Hackel, who declined to address the court at his hearing, must register under Megan’s Law for 25 years. The law is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl raped and murdered by her neighbor, a twice-convicted pedophile, in July 1994. Her death led to state and federal laws that created sex offender registries and in certain cases, community notification mechanisms, designed to let people know a molester was living in their community.