COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Former 10TV chief meteorologist Mike Davis pleaded guilty to child pornography charges Thursday morning.

Davis faces up to 29.5 years if he’s sentenced to prison. Upon release, he would have to register as a tier 2 sex offender.

In a motion filed last week, Davis’ attorney argues Davis used pornography in an attempt to self-medicate after suffering for years with many mental health issues, including severe depression and anxiety.

Judge Karen Phipps agreed with a defense request to have Davis screened for possible admission to the CBCF River City Intense Therapy Program.

Davis was booked into the Franklin County Jail in September of 2019, charged pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

The Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force received a tip that Davis had sent and received a “significant” amount of child pornography.

Assistant prosecutor Kara Keating said Davis confirmed the allegations during an interview with investigators.

“(Davis) admitted to going to a website, downloading images and then sending those images to himself so he could access those from multiple devices,” Keating said.

Task Force Sgt. Jeff Zech said technology changes make it a challenge to find and catch sex offenders online.

“It’s just like a constant cat and mouse game of trying to figure out what these individuals are using, where they’re located at, how they’re trading things, how they’re trying to keep things secret, that sort of thing,” Zech said.

Zech said high profile cases like Davis become the face for what is a much bigger problem.

“We could have 100 investigators or detectives up here in our office and we would still be swamped with the amount of activity that occurs of this nature,” Zech said. “It’s just a drop in the bucket, what we’re getting of what’s going on.”

Sentencing is scheduled for March 25, at 11:30 a.m.