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WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne teen who allegedly said he downloaded images of naked children because he was curious was sentenced Friday to up to two years in prison.

Matthew Samuel Townley, 19, of Bennett Street, pleaded guilty in May to four counts of possessing child pornography and four counts of disseminating child pornography.

Luzerne County Judge Tina Polachek Gartley sentenced Townley to one year minus one day to two years minus two days in county prison followed by four years probation and ordered him to register with the Pennsylvania State Police as a sexual offender for a 25-year period.

The judge also instructed Townley to have no unsupervised contact with minors or unsupervised use of the Internet.

Charges were filed in June 2015 after Luzerne County detective Charles Balogh received a cybertip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that was generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

According to court papers, the cybertip was reported to NCMEC by Google, which reported that a member using Townley’s email addresses uploaded four images depicting suspected images of child pornography on May 24, 2015.

Each image showed prepubescent girls either completely naked or exposing personal body parts. Another uploaded image depicted a 3- to 5-year-old girl engaging in sexual intercourse, court papers state.

Townley, confronted by police, told them he would go to a website called ChatHour and chat with individuals who had interest in child pornography. From there, he would exchange KIK screen names and communicate via KIK Messenger, where he and the other individuals would exchange images and videos of child pornography, according to court records.

Townley also said he sent child porn images from his cellphone on two occasions, and that until a month ago, when he reset his cellphone, he had 50 to 70 images of child porn stored on it.

Asked why he was looking at child pornography, Townley replied, “I was curious,” court papers state.

He offered an apology to the victims, stating he was “sorry for the way they were treated” and that his looking at the images is “sickening,” according to court papers.

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By Joe Dolinsky

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Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL