A former Mehlville School District information-technology specialist has been sentenced in St. Louis County Circuit Court to 10 years in prison concurrent to a federal sentence of 11 years and three months in federal prison for sending and possessing child pornography through a school-district computer.

Barnhart resident Thomas R. Mantle, 44, pleaded guilty in March to three counts of first-degree promotion of child pornography and two counts of second-degree promotion of child pornography.

Mantle also pleaded guilty to another pornography charge in Jefferson County Circuit Court, where he received a seven-year prison sentence, which also is concurrent with his federal sentence.

Along with Mantle’s 135-month federal prison sentence, he will be on supervised release for life.

The pornographic images were viewed on a school-district computer in the district’s information-technology department, which is in an annex of the district’s Administration Building.

Mantle was arrested and later released on bond after a New Hampshire police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy notified St. Louis County Police that Mantle had e-mailed hundreds of images of child pornography and a naked photo of himself. Investigators then found more than 10,000 images and 139 movies on Mantle’s computers in the school districts information-technology department.

Mehlville School District Director of School/Community Relations Patrick Wallace previously said that no other district employee or student saw these pornographic images and that Mantle had no unsupervised contact with any student.