LEWISTON — Derek Hinkley has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, followed by supervised release for life, for the sexual exploitation of two local children.

Hinkley, 30, of Lewiston pleaded guilty to a single charge of sexual exploitation of a child in January. While entering his plea, he admitted that he used his computer to live-stream images of a teenage boy masturbating over the Internet on July 18, 2012.

Also known as Ethan Hinkley, the defendant invited two boys, ages 12 and 15, to spend that night in 2012 at his apartment. He told them he was 18 years old.

When the boys arrived, Hinkley showed them pornographic images on his laptop computer and then, according to court records, Hinkley brandished a knife, “forced both to masturbate and play with a sex toy.”

He had threatened to cut off the older boy’s genitals if he did not comply with Hinkley’s instructions.

Hinkley did not stream any images of the 12-year-old.

According to court records, the boys reported Hinkley’s actions to Lewiston police the following day. Police searched Hinkley’s apartment and detectives seized the computer. A forensic analysis of his computer showed Hinkley used the social media website reported by the victims at the time they say he was streaming images.

The next day, Hinkley confessed to committing the crime.

Hinkley, formerly from Strong, had been facing a minimum 15-year sentence, but in handing down the sentence, Justice Nancy Torresen said, “You do have a very serious problem and I can’t be comfortable that others will be protected unless I give you a very serious sentence,” according to a news release issued by the Department of Justice.

The investigation was conducted by the Lewiston Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.