An Albrightsville man pleaded guilty on Thursday in Carbon County court to child pornography charges.

Stanley Bernardo, 67, pleaded to one count sexual abuse of children and nine counts of child pornography.

Bernardo was charged by agents of the state Attorney General’s office following an investigation.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Daniel Block, a special agent with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations:

On May 8, 2018, an online investigation for offenders sharing child pornography was being conducted on the Gnutella network, a peer-to-peer network used to exchange files between computers. The IP provider identified the subscriber’s address as being registered to Bernardo.

It was determined that the address was out of the detective’s jurisdiction, and the case was forwarded to Block.

At 8:10 a.m. Aug. 29, 2018, agents from the AG office, Homeland Security Investigations, and Monroe County detectives executed a search warrant at Bernardo’s home.

No one was home at the time, but a search of the home revealed an all-in-one computer in the office, which police viewed.

Block contacted Bernardo’s wife, who said that her husband, Bernardo, was at a doctor’s office.

Bernardo was contacted and agreed to be interviewed at a table near the parking lot.

Among other things Bernardo said that he has been looking for, downloading and viewing child pornography once or twice a week for the past several years, and that he had seen it as recently as Aug. 28.

Bernardo said he is the sole user of his computer and gave the password for his phone and device, adding that he only uses his computer for child porn-related searches.

Bernardo said that he has used the file sharing program called Shareaza, and that he used it to look for child pornography in May of 2018 and possibly more recently.

Bernardo said that it is a “curiosity thing, because it piqued his curiosity.”

On Sept. 17, an agent of the AG’s Computer Forensic Unit informed Block of several files discovered on Bernardo’s devices. The files included at least nine videos of apparent child pornography depicting indecent contact and at least 25 images of apparent child pornography also depicting indecent contact.

Judge State R. Serfass accepted the pleas but deferred sentencing since the charges fall under the provisions of Megan’s Law. Bernardo will be interviewed by the state sexual offenders assessment board to determine if he is a violent sexual predator. Serfass also ordered the adult probation office to prepare a presentence investigation report.

Bernardo, who has been in the county prison since his arrest, was told by Serfass he faces a minimum sentence of somewhere between 12 and 24 months up to a maximum of 120 months, which means a state prison term.