An Alexandria, Virginia man pleaded guilty today to one count of receipt of child pornography.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and Chief Michael L. Brown of the Alexandria Police Department made the announcement.

Edward Thomas Parsons, 64, a former physical security specialist with the Department of Defense, pleaded guilty today before Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia to receipt of child pornography. According to admissions made in connection with his plea, Parsons administered an online group chat on Kik Messenger, a mobile messaging application, dedicated to soliciting child pornography from other Kik users. Between January 2015 and August 2015, Parsons received and distributed images and videos of child pornography from this Kik group chat. In addition, through the course of its investigation, law enforcement seized Parsons’s personal desktop computer and cell phone and found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography on the devices.

Parsons is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 1, 2019.

FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, specifically the Alexandria Police Department, is investigating the case. The Task Force is comprised of agents of the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and detectives from the Prince William County Police, Fairfax County Police, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Metropolitan Police, Alexandria City Police, Arlington County Police, Leesburg Police, Virginia State Police and the Offices of Inspector General of several federal agencies. Trial Attorneys James E. Burke IV, Gwendelynn Bills and William Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) are prosecuting the case.