A Butler man was sentenced Thursday to 180 months of probation after pleading guilty to charges police filed against him for sending sexual comments and lewd photos to a juvenile girl in New York and a woman in separate cases.

Joshua Caleb Barber, 24, was sentenced to serve three consecutive terms of 60 months of probation and comply with special conditions for sexual offenders while on probation after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors and one count of obscene materials. Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune ordered the sentence.

The two counts of corruption of minors charges were among several charges state police filed against Barber in July 2020 following contact he made with a 16-year-old girl in New York in January of that year.

Police were contacted by New York State Police who advised them that a girl, while riding a school bus Jan. 6, 2020, received a telephone call from an unknown number.

The caller made a comment about wanting to have sex with her, police said. The girl ended the call, but the suspect called back. The girl told him to stop calling her.

She received another call, police said, which she declined. A short time later, the girl received several direct messages via Instagram.

The messages included several screenshots of the girl from her Instagram account, according to charging documents, along with inappropriate sexual comments. Three digital images of male genitalia also were sent.

Police linked Barber to the Instagram account from which the lewd comments and explicit images were sent. During an interview, he admitted to calling the girl after obtaining her number online and sending messages and images to the girl from his Instagram account.

In the second case, Butler Township police filed charges against Barber in July 2021 for sending unsolicited and lewd remarks, photographs and videos to a woman on multiple occasions despite her repeated refusal to communicate with him in August 2020.