SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Edward Stephen Neil, 29, of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on October 27, 2026, to 108 months of imprisonment to be followed by 10 years of supervised release by United States District Judge Julia K. Munley, for distribution of child pornography. According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, the indictment alleges that Neil, over the course of July and August of 2024, used a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Network to download, receive, view, and distribute child pornography. A sampling of some of these images and videos depicted the graphic sexual assault of pre-pubescent and teenaged children. In November of 2024, a search warrant was executed at his residence wherein agents discovered that he was in possession of multiple electronic devices which contained similar images and videos of the sexual assault of children. The FBI Philadelphia’s Scranton Resident Agency and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Luisa Honora Berti is prosecuting the case.This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.# # #
Source: U.S. Department of Justice