A Huntingdon Valley man is headed to county jail after pleading guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography during a hearing last week.
As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, 27-year-old Peter Kostka pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography on March 7, according to court documents. Common Pleas Judge Risa Ferman sentenced Kostka to six to 23 months in county jail followed by four years’ probation, with the additional conditions that Kostka pay a fine of up to $500 and register as a Tier 1 sex offender under Megan’s Law.
Kostka is also barred from having unsupervised internet usage and must undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation and Sexually Violent Predator Assessment, court records show. All other charges, including distributing child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, have been dropped.
Kostka was charged in October 2020 with 17 counts of distributing child pornography, 100 counts of possession of child pornography and 17 counts of criminal use of a communication facility following an investigation by the Abington Township Police Department.
Investigators said they received a tip from Snapchat in March 2020 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding an account — identified as “itspeepee” — that had shared images of child pornography. The account was then allegedly traced to Kostka’s residence, and police served a search warrant on the home on Sept. 3, 2020, police said.
According to the criminal complaint, Kostka was home at the time the search warrant was executed, and he allegedly admitted to being the owner of the “itspeepee” account. Kostka also told investigators that he had been using the social media application “Kik” to send and receive child pornography, which he then saved to his phone, the report states.
A forensic examination of Kostka’s iPhone and computer later revealed a total of 128 images of child pornography as well as six video files of underage children engaged in sexual activities, police said. Some of the victims pictured were as young as 3-year-old, according to the criminal complaint.
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