A former Basking Ridge man who previously admitted collecting sexually explicit images of children on DVDs purchased from Japan and downloading them from the Internet was on Thursday sentenced to 36 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Hakan Pekcan, 49, who has since relocated to Highland Park in Middlesex County, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, had last August pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge José L. Linares to information in a charge one count of possession of child pornography, said a news release from the U.S. Attorney, New Jersey District. The judge imposed the sentence on Thursday in federal court in Newark, the release said.

Rebekah Carmichael, spokeswoman for the Office of Public Affairs for the N.J. District for the U.S. Attorney, said late Thursday afternoon that Pekcan had lived in Basking Ridge at the time he entered his plea last summer.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Pekcan to five years supervised release, fined him $10,000 and ordered him to pay restitution of $3,500, said Thursday's release from the U.S. Attorney.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, the U.S. Attorney said Pekcan admitted to possessing on computers, hard drives and storage disks in his home with illegal images and videos of children.

Federal law enforcement officers seized several hard drives and hundreds of DVDs during a search of his residence in July 2010, according to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney when Pekcan was living in Basking Ridge.

Pekcan last summer acknowledged that some of the images and videos depicted prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to documents filed in this case and statements made during Pekcan's guilty plea during the proceeding in Newark federal court.

As part of his guilty plea, Pekcan agreed to forfeit computers and computer accessories which he used to commit the offense, said the release issued on Aug. 18.

On Thursday, Fishman credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett in Newark, with the investigation that led to the guilty plea.

The government has been represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane H. Yoon of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark, Thursday's release said.