An Easton man was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 18 months in prison for possession of child pornography.

Zane Wetzel, 31, also was sentenced to five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in December.

Court documents show Wetzel possessed image and video files containing child pornography on or about May 14, 2015. Some of these files, which Wetzel sought out and downloaded from the internet, depicted the sexual exploitation of children younger than 12 years old.

Judge John Woodcock Jr. told Wetzel his crime “merits a significant penalty.”

“These young girls from around the world, who have been subjected to this abuse, are somebody’s daughters,” the judge said Monday.

The Maine State Police computer crimes unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement collaborated on the investigation.

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