A West Mifflin man prosecuted on child pornography charges stemming from the investigation of a woman accused of selling her toddler for sex was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in federal prison.

Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch also ordered Wyndell R. Williams, 44, to spend the rest of his life on probation.

Williams, a part-time sportswriter, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in November to possession of child pornography.

He has also pleaded guilty in federal court in Williamsport, Lycoming County, to charges of lying during a hearing in the case of Angela McCullen, 35, of Williamsport. McCullen is charged with two counts of using her child in sexually explicit images displayed on the Internet, among other counts.

Authorities said Williams testified at a hearing that he had known McCullen for several years, hoping to help her win release on bail. The FBI said he had only known her for a few months through the Internet.

He will be sentenced in Williamsport on that conviction on March 28.

McCullen is charged along with Richard D. King Jr., 42, of Mohnton, Berks County, who is accused of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex.

Authorities allege that King met McCullen near Buffalo, N.Y., in November 1993, and the two, along with her child, traveled to the Reading area, where King was to engage in sex with the child.

Williams was not directly involved with that case, but his arrest was a result of the investigation. According to an FBI affidavit, Williams had been corresponding with McCullen online.

During their search of Williams' house, agents seized his computer and found 2,000 chats, some of them about child pornography and molestation.

One of them was an April 10 conversation in which Williams and a man from Shaler discussed molesting children and that man showed Williams nude pictures of his own 4-year-old daughter.

When Williams asked how young the other man likes girls, he answered, "10, 14. Wish mine was that age now." He said he had molested a 13-year-old girl from Bellevue four times.

The two discussed the Shaler man's little girl, according to a transcript, and he then offered her to Williams for sex in exchange for money.

The Shaler man also has been charged.