The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a Dingman’s Ferry man pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion in Scranton, to receiving and distributing child pornography.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Daniel Decker, age 29, admitted that he used a computer between January 2, 2015 and January 20, 2015, to obtain and distribute images of young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Decker was charged in an Information filed by the United States Attorney on February 2, 2015. The charge resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office.

Decker faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A sentencing date will be scheduled after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation report.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa is prosecuting the case.