U.S. District Judge Gretchen Lund sentenced a Lake Station man to a maximum 30-year sentence Wednesday after he admitted he made and sent child porn in June 2023, records show.

Matthew Bugielski, 26, pleaded guilty in February to sexual exploitation of children, Acting U.S. Attorney Tina Nommay said in a news release.

He will also serve 15 years on supervised release after prison and pay restitution to the victim.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a “priority one” tip to the Indiana State Police and the Internet Crimes Against Children task force in August 2023 — fearing a child was in “imminent” danger, filings show. The illegal material was sent via Kik, a messaging app; Hily, a dating app; and texts.

They discovered Bugielski, an HVAC tech, took a pornographic picture of a toddler, sending it to get more child porn in return. He asked a northeastern Indiana woman for pictures and videos of her sexually abusing another child. The woman said the child was small.

“I mean you can still do stuff,” he responded.

He later sent an explicit video of a child, records note.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Morgan tried the case. Visvaldis Kupsis represented Bugielski.

mcolias@post-trib.com