A 39-year-old Summit Township man pleaded guilty Thursday to downloading child pornography depicting 11- to 16-year-old girls.

On July 8, authorities with the state Attorney General's office arrested David W. Mengel, leading to 10 felony charges of possession of child pornography and one felony count each of dissemination of child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility.

As part of Mengel's plea deal, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. His deal calls for one year minus a day to two years minus two days in jail followed by three years of probation.

He will also have to register as a Tier I sex offender, placing him under the government's watch for 15 years.

County Judge William Shaffer, who accepted the plea deal, will sentence Mengel after he is assessed by the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

The attorney general's child predator section began its investigation into Mengel's online illegal activities April 1, 2020, after it received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to charging documents.

The tip indicated that a video depicting child pornography had been uploaded via the Facebook Messenger application, investigators said.

Following the tip, authorities learned that Mengel was sharing and viewing videos of suspected child pornography using the instant messaging mobile app Kik Messenger.

The investigation identified his account for that app as well as his Facebook account and its associated email service. Agents eventually obtained Mengel's address.

On May 13, documents said, investigators conducted surveillance at the mobile home to determine who lived there. Mengel was home when the search warrant was executed July 8.

Authorities reviewed the content on an electronic storage drive and found “numerous apparent child pornography media files,” documents said.

Mengel, according to documents, “acknowledged that he has had (a) problem with looking at child pornography since he was (a) teenager.”