HARRISBURG — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Evan Matthew Lawbaugh, age 34, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 40 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo for two counts of production of images depicting the sexual exploitation of children.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Lawbaugh sexually assaulted a toddler boy and a four-year-old girl and recorded the assaults. Lawbaugh distributed videos depicting the assault on the toddler boy on the internet. Lawbaugh also possessed thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child pornography, includes images depicting the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers. Lawbaugh was previously convicted of possession of child pornography on April 8, 2015, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General and the Pennsylvania State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Daryl Bloom prosecuted the case.
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