The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 20-year-old Clarks Summit man was sentenced today in Scranton by Senior U.S. District Court Judge James M. Munley to serve 15 years in federal prison for producing child pornography.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Taylor Bzdyr, previously pleaded guilty to using a computer and a cell phone to persuade a 13-year-old female from Canada to engage in sexual acts which were transmitted live via Skype. Bzdry committed the offense between October 2012 and October 2013.

Bzdyr was indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in Scranton in March 2014, as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Border Patrol Agents in California, and the New Westminster Police Department in British Columbia, Canada.

Judge Munley also ordered Bzdyr to be placed on supervised release for life following his prison sentence. Bzdyr must also register as a sex offender and comply with sex offender notification requirements and restrictions.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.

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.”