A county judge sentenced an East Earl Township man to two and a half to 10 years in state prison this week after he pleaded guilty to using an online alias to encourage juveniles to send him nude images, then sharing his self-described “huge” collection of child pornography online.

Judge Merrill Spahn handed down the sentence to Kenneth Lee Schmidt, 46, after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to a total of 49 charges – all felony offenses – including possession of child pornography, dissemination of photographs or film of child sex acts, criminal solicitation of photographs or film of child sex acts, disseminating explicit sexual material of a minor, contact or communication with a minor, corruption of minors, identity theft and criminal use of a communication facility.

Schmidt was also prosecuted federally for similar crimes arising out of this investigation. Schmidt’s local sentence was ordered to run concurrently to a separate 420-months, or 35 years, of incarceration imposed on him by the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. That sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.

Given the nature of Schmidt’s conduct, “you deserve every second” of the sentence, Judge Spahn told Schmidt. Judge Spahn nevertheless said he hopes Schmidt will use his time in prison productively.

An attorney representing Schmidt told the court that he is “remorseful” and wants to use programs in the state and federal prison systems to rehabilitate himself.

Schmidt chose not to speak when given the opportunity to do so by the court.

Though Schmidt was already in prison on the federal charges, Wednesday’s conviction ensures that the Commonwealth can provide justice to the victims and protect the public, First Deputy Assistant District Attorney Cody Wade told the court.

Investigators in Lancaster County began looking into Schmidt in 2020 after receiving a cyber tip that an IP address traced back to Schmidt’s home in the first block of Terrie Lane and a Sadsbury Township restaurant where he worked had shared images of child pornography online in March of that year. Federal investigators had already been looking into Schmidt for similar reasons since 2018.

A search warrant executed at Schmidt’s home yielded hundreds of images and videos of suspected child pornography on his cell phone and desktop computer. Technicians who conducted a forensic analysis of the devices found at least 30 videos of nude children and 76 videos of children engaging in sexual contact.

Schmidt told investigators in a later interview that he had disseminated child pornography online on multiple occasions, adding that he was in possession of “huge” files of child pornography.

When asked by investigators how large his files of child pornography were, Schmidt said he “could scroll through them for the rest of my life and never look at the same image twice.”

Schmidt built the massive collection of child pornography in part by using an alter-ego to communicate with juveniles across the United States in order to encourage them to send him nude images and videos of themselves. The victims, whose ages ranged from 13 to 17, believed they were communicating with a teenage boy named “Ben,” who was in fact Schmidt using an alias.

Investigators were able to identify the real boy whose images Schmidt used for the alter-ego, who was unaware that his likeness had been used. Victims who had communicated with Schmidt were able to identify pictures of the boy as “Ben.”

Schmidt told authorities he had created multiple Instagram accounts posing as “Ben” with the intention of meeting young girls and encouraging them to send nude images and videos of themselves to him.

Assistant District Attorney Janie Swinehart prosecuted the case.

East Earl Township Police Patrol Officer Gary Sensenig filed the charges.