A Freedom man was sentenced Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty to one of 432 child pornography charges.

John D. Lefler, 47, of Freedom, was sentenced to serve 12 to 24 months in Butler County Prison, but is eligible for parole after 6 months to serve the balance of the minimum sentence on house arrest with electronic monitoring.

In addition, Judge Maura Palumbi said Lefler is a tier 1 offender under Megan’s Law and must register with state police for 15 years. She also ordered him to have no contact with the victims.

Assistant district attorney Robert Zanella said the charges were consolidated into one count.

Cranberry Township police filed charges June 20, 2024, after a May 27 intervention in the Cranberry Mall parking lot on Route 19, according to an affidavit.

The intervention was conducted by police and representatives of Predator Poachers, a national organization that travels the country conducting intervention-style sting operations to catch child predators.

When police and Predator Poachers approached Lefler in the parking lot, he admitted he had viewed and exchanged child pornography with others online and said he had 30 or 40 child pornography images involving children between 5 and 17 years old stored in his cellphone, according to the affidavit.

After he allowed police to search his phone, an investigator found 288 images and 144 videos of children under 18 years old engaged in sexual acts or simulations of those acts, police said.

Some of the images showed violent sexual acts involving children, including some less than 10 years old, police said.