PROVIDENCE — A federal judge yesterday sentenced Barry Zurybida, 51, of Middletown, to 18 years in prison on charges of producing and possessing child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres imposed the sentence on Zurybida, who pleaded guilty in December to two counts of photographing minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of possessing child pornography.

Middletown police arrested Zurybida in March 2007 on a second-degree child molestation charge. While investigating the complaint, authorities discovered on Zurybida’s computer photographs of two girls between ages 4 and 7 who Zurybida had forced to expose their genitals, according to prosecutors. The girls had been in Zurybida’s care between September 2005 and early 2007.

The FBI joined the investigation after Middletown police found the pornography.

The victims’ mother spoke at the sentencing, saying, “For my daughters, their innocence is gone, never to come back, regardless of the amount of therapy sessions we go through. Innocence — purity — can never return. It’s gone.”

The sentence is about three years longer than the minimum 15-year sentence required under federal law for the charges Zurybida faced.

Zurybida had also admitted to touching the girls’ genitals, prosecutors said. A related charge of second-degree child molestation against Zurybida is pending in Newport Superior Court.

The judge also ordered that Zurybida face lifetime court supervision after his release from prison and set conditions prohibiting his interaction with children and use of the Internet.

Zurybida, of 43 Squantum Drive, has been held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls.

The case was prosecuted as part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative against sexual exploitation of children.

mwims@projo.com