A Thorold man whose name came to light after U.S. police launched an investigation into a child sex case against a gynecologist in Utah has pleaded guilty to accessing child pornography.

Mark Seguin pleaded guilty Monday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines. The 38-year-old man, who has no previously dealings with the law, is expected to return to court in April for sentencing.

Dr. Nathan Clark Ward, then 56, was arrested in 2017 after police investigated claims a doctor had recorded a video of the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl and shared the video with another individual.

The gynecologist is now serving a 37-year jail sentence after being convicted of a number of child sex-related offences. Depending on the outcome of parole hearings, he will be between 85 and 93 when he's released.

At a sentencing hearing, the victim's mother called Ward a "filthy, disgusting man who created a false world to cover up your deviancy."

The judge at the time recommended Ward's 401K plan be used to cover the cost of the victim's college tuition, fees, books and housing.

Ward had been in practice for 25 years, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology and had spent 13 years as a staff physician for the U.S. air force.

In December 2017, authorities in Utah contacted Niagara Regional Police for assistance regarding a local resident connected to their investigation.

The investigation had led police to a Dropbox, a personal cloud storage service frequently used for file sharing. The Dropbox account contained a number documents, including Seguin's divorce papers, as well as a number of images of child pornography.

As a result, the NRP executed a warrant at the defendant's Thorold home in February 2018 and seized a number of computer systems and storage media for forensic examination.

The devices included images and 10 videos featuring children between the ages of four and eight that met the legal definition of child pornography.