A Penn Township man was sentenced to 18 to 36 months of state prison after he pleaded guilty this week to possessing dozens of images of child pornography on his electronic devices.

Judge Jeffrey Conrad sentenced Justin Michael Lowe, 34, on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to eight counts of sexual abuse of children.

Speaking to the court prior to his sentencing, Lowe said he wasn’t aware that the hundreds of images he downloaded contained some depicting children, adding that he collected the images years ago at a time when he was dealing with addictions to cocaine, methamphetamines and pornography. The images were only discovered and the police investigation began years later when Lowe accessed his Dropbox account while searching for old documents, only to be quickly locked out due to inappropriate content being detected, he told the court.

But Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lapp, who prosecuted the case, noted that the 80 or so images Lowe had were found on multiple electronic devices, including two cellphones.

Additionally, Lapp said, police who searched Lowe’s home in January 2024 found pornography open on his computer and a sex toy on his bed, and noted that Lowe told investigators at that time that there were images he owned that “he wasn’t proud of” but that he believed “most were teenagers.”

In handing down his sentence, Judge Conrad noted he was concerned by Lowe’s statements that he was unaware of what he downloaded, noting that Lowe is mature enough and intelligent enough to understand the consequences of his actions.

Society at large needs to “crush the evil” of child pornography, and Lowe personally must “crush the evil between your two ears,” Judge Conrad told him.

Police began looking into Lowe in October 2023 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified possible child pornography being uploaded and downloaded from Lowe’s residence in the 100 block of Sunny Slope Lane. The tip was passed along to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office Digital Forensic Unit, who referred the case to Northern Lancaster County Regional Police.

A search of Lowe’s electronic devices uncovered dozens of pictures and videos depicting nude juveniles, many of them involving sexual acts.

Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Officer Theresa Stauffer filed the charges.