An Upper Salford Township man in Montgomery County Court admitted to having child pornography on his cellphone and is waiting for his sentencing hearing.
Lawrence Francis Cole, 34, of the 1700 block of Hendricks Road, confessed to having child pornography in 2021.
Judge Thomas C. Branca postponed the sentencing until August to allow for a background investigation report about Cole, and evaluations for drugs, alcohol, mental health, and psychosexual issues.
Cole will also undergo a sexually violent predator assessment by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board.
Cole is currently out on bail and could face 5 to 10 years in prison, but state sentencing guidelines may lead to a shorter sentence.
Regardless of his eventual sentence, Cole will have to report his address to the state police for 15 years to comply with the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Cole was arrested during an investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police Southeast Computer Crime Task Force.
The investigation began after Snapchat reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography was being uploaded to their server by a user, which was traced back to Cole.
The videos showed young girls between 6 and 12 years old engaged in sexual acts with adult males.
Armed with a search warrant, police went to Cole’s home on Jan. 20, 2023, and he provided a statement.
Cole admitted to viewing and saving child pornography on his cellphone and mentioned using a Russian website to find and save the files.
He provided the path to find the child pornography on his phone, and a forensic analysis found 16 images and one video on a memory card removed from Cole’s cellphone.
A charge of criminal use of a communication facility is set to be dismissed against Cole at the time of sentencing.
The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred in 2021.
Police alleged they found 16 images and one video depicting apparent child pornography on a memory card removed from Cole’s cellphone.
A charge of criminal use of a communication facility is slated to be dismissed against Cole at time of sentencing.
