A Port Allegany man was sentenced Thursday in McKean County Court for child pornography allegations.
Ryan T. Abbott, 39, had pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to two counts of child pornography, third-degree felonies, court records indicate.
Abbott was sentenced Thursday in McKean County before President Judge John Pavlock to one to two years in state prison. Abbott must register as a sex offender for 15 years under SORNA.
Abbott must have an updated mental health evaluation with a focus on sex offender treatment, and he is to have no unsupervised contact with juveniles.
Before sentencing Abbott, Pavlock said this was a difficult case for him. On one hand, Abbott has a zero prior record score, but on the other, Pavlock has to consider how this type of crime harms children.
“I have to balance that,” the judge said.
He encouraged Abbott to take this as an opportunity to reach out for help for whatever motivated him to commit the actions.
According to court records filed at the time Abbott was first charged, in January 2019, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received a CyberTipline report by a registered electronic service provider related to an incident with peer-to-peer client file.
The state police Northwest Computer Crime Unit tracked the file transfer to Abbott’s address, and state police executed a search warrant there on March 20, 2019. The criminal complaint alleged that more than 1,000 images of child pornography were found.
