A New Castle man was sentenced Tuesday in Common Pleas Court to serve a maximum of just under two years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges filed in July 2020 by the state Attorney General's Office.

David Walter Mengel, 40, was sentenced to concurrently serve 364 days to 728 days for the 10 felony child pornography charges to which he pleaded guilty. The sentence, ordered by Judge William Shaffer, also requires Mengel to serve 36 months of probation after he is released from incarceration for his guilty plea to a felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility.

In addition, Mengel will have to register with the state police as a Tier I sex offender under Megan's Law for 15 years.

A felony charge of dissemination of child pornography was dismissed in the plea agreement.

Agents from the Attorney General's Office arrested Mengel July 8, 2020.

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.”