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WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A West Pittston man will spend up to three years in state prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.Donald Charles Tompkins, 58, of Blackman Street, was sentenced Monday in Luzerne County Court to 18 to 36 months in a state correctional institution followed by five years probation, according to court papers.Judge Tina Polachek Gartley imposed the sentence, which also precludes the man from making any unsupervised contact with minors or unsupervised use of the internet, court documents say.He is to avoid areas where children congregate, court papers say, and must complete sexual offender treatment.Tompkins also must register as a Tier III sex offender &#8212; considered the most serious type of offender under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.Court documents say the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board did not declare Tompkins a sexually violent predator.According to a criminal complaint, state police and county investigators received tips indicating the transfer of videos depicting adult males engaged in lewd acts with girls between the ages of 7 and 9.The tips, originating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reached investigators between July 2013 and February 2014, court papers say.Investigators discovered the messages came from an IP address assigned to Tompkins, police say, and in March 2014 served a search warrant on his West Pittston residence.As a result of the search, the complaint says police recovered several videos and images of child pornography from Tompkins&#8217; computer and email accounts.According to the affidavit, Tompkins admitted in an interview with police to owning the email accounts listed in the tips and to possessing the pornography. Police say he also admitted to sending the files between different email accounts, which he also owned, as a means of saving and accessing them.The complaint says he confessed to &#8220;sexually gratifying&#8221; himself while viewing the images and videos.

West Pittston man sentenced to state prison on child porn charges