A Monroe County man entered a guilty plea last week in federal court to four counts related to child pornography.

Nicholas J. Perjak, 34, faces a prison term of up to 10 years, a fine up to $250,000 and supervised release when sentencing takes place on June 3 in East St. Louis.

He was charged with attempted access to child porn with intent to view and access to child porn with intent to view, according to James L. Porter, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which IP addresses were captured when an individual, using a particular IP address, visited a website that contained links to child pornography and subsequently clicked on a link that indicated, through the description of the link, that it would lead to child porn.

A subpoena issued as part of the investigation determined that one of the captured IP addresses was registered to Perjak at his prior residence in Waterloo.

The FBI investigation revealed that Perjak attempted to access child porn on this website on May 14, May 18 and June 25, 2011, according to federal court information released last week.

Based on this information, officers with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force in Fairview Heights conducted an interview at Perjak’s residence on Dec. 13, 2012. Perjak provided a voluntary statement in which he identified a laptop as the computer he primarily used for work and personal business.

Perjak also admitted viewing child porn for approximately two years and indicated he last viewed child porn “in the last week.” Perjak admitted being addicted to child porn, according to the court information, and said he had been addicted to it for the past three years.

Perjak also admitted viewing child porn involving young girls, but said he never saved or stored any child porn on his laptop. After the interview ended, Perjak gave the officers written consent to seize his laptop.

A forensic review of the computer revealed approximately 6,164 image files of child porn, federal court information states. The review also revealed that on three occasions in late 2012, Perjak searched for and accessed both image and video files of child porn.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”