Mt. Lebanon Man Sentenced To 8+ Years In Prison For Possessing Sexually Explicit Images Of Children

PITTSBURGH - A resident of Mt. Lebanon, Pa., has been sentenced in federal court to 97 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release on his conviction for possessing sexually explicit images of children, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Gustave Diamond imposed the sentence on Andrew Thomas Dahmen, 23.

According to information presented to the court, on Jan. 2, 2012, Mt. Lebanon police responded to a pizza restaurant at 713 Washington Road, after the father of a five year-old child reported that Dahmen had attempted to produce a cellular telephone image of the child in the bathroom. Further investigation resulted in the seizure of the cellular phone as well as computers and storage media from Dahmen's residence. Dahmen was found to be in possession of hundreds of images of child pornography, including images depicting prepubescent minors, and had produced images of children with his cellular telephone.

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Diamond stated that the sentence was warranted to protect the public and to prevent the defendant from "being a potential sexual predator of young people," and "pursuing conduct directly detrimental to children."

Assistant United States Attorney Soo C. Song prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the Mt. Lebanon Police Department, assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Dahmen.