A 39-year-old Blount County man pleaded guilty this evening to 94 counts of possession of child porn.

Paul Anthony Kelly, of Oneonta, entered his plea at 5:40 p.m. at the Blount County Correctional Facility, said Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey. Kelly entered a blind plea, which leaves his sentencing up to the court. His sentencing is set for 9 a.m. on Jan. 8, 2016.

Kelly was taken into custody Nov. 25 and has been jailed since with bond set at $1.4 million.

The probe began two years ago after investigators said they discovered pornographic images linked to Kelly's email account. It began in July 2013 when the Huntsville post of the Department of Homeland Security received information from the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit that an email account had received images via the internet that contained child pornography, according to an arrest affidavit in the case. That email address came back to Kelly who lives on Laurel Lane.

Three weeks later, agents carried out a federal search warrant on the Hotmail account. Then, in September, the agents executed another federal search warrant at Kelly's home. They seized two hard drives, two computers, one video records, 83 home movies, and other electronics.

While agents were in Kelly's house, he came home, according to court records. He was read his Miranda rights, and then told investigators he knew why they were there. "He indicated that he did view child pornography,' the agent wrote in the affidavit. "He indicated that he preferred pictures of boys between the ages of 9 and 10 and had looked at child pornography that contained images of children from ages 2 to 16."

"He further detailed that he had searched the internet for 'pre-teen nude boys,' 'Asian boys,' and 'black boys' when searching for pornography," the affidavit says. "He admitted to becoming sexually aroused and masturbating while watching images of child pornography."

Kelly told lawmen he had a current account with a photo sharing website. He also admitted to posting photos of nude children on the site, records show. "Kelly revealed he had been looking at child pornography for about 10 years but had tried to stop during the last two years due to being 'disgusted' by the looks on the children's faces when adults are performing sexual acts on them," the affidavit reads. "He indicated he wanted help for his addiction to child pornography."

The digital forensic analysis of the items seized from Kelly's home was submitted to the Alabama Electronic Crimes Task force, which issued its report on Sept. 3, 2015. The analysis showed more than 100 images of child pornography of children under the age of 17.

"We have a great partnership with federal agents and Homeland Security so that we can work cases with them in Blount County," Casey said after Kelly's arrest. "This case results from a joint partnership with Homeland Security. We will continue to pursue these cases aggressively."