SCRANTON—The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 25-year-old Pittston man who admitted to receiving and distributing child pornography between 2013 and February 2015, was sentenced yesterday to 97 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani in Scranton.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Steven Wolfe, previously pleaded guilty to using a computer to download and distribute images of child pornography to others, including persons in the United Kingdom.

Wolfe was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2015, as a result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and Kent Police in England. Luzerne County Detectives and Pittston Police assisted in the investigation.

Judge Mariani ordered Wolfe to serve five years on supervised release following his prison sentence. Wolfe must also register as a sex offender and comply with all of the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

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 prosecuted the case.