SAN DIEGO - A man once in charge of defending youth in the legal system is now facing federal child porn charges.

10News has confirmed San Diego deputy public defender David Lamb is facing federal charges of possessing and attempting to distribute child porn.

A 2011 Gay San Diego article cited Lamb, the assistant supervisor in the juvenile delinquent branch, as an expert for a story on a case making national headlines.

It is the same Lamb now facing federal charges.

According to a federal complaint, a tip from Homeland Security agents in Toronto led to an IP address assigned to Lamb at his Mission Hills apartment.

The complaint reveals what the agents found inside the apartment -- a computer and three thumb drives packed with some 1,000 photos and videos of child porn.

Lamb is accused of using the handle "sdattorney" to try to swap images on a file-sharing site.

In a chat log detailed in the complaint, sdattorney is talking to "bb" about swapping passwords to access each other's accounts.

According to the complaint, sdattorney wrote: "My password is pedoporn."

In another log documented in the complaint, sdatttorney talks about liking images of babies being sexually abused.

In another log, sdattorney keeps asking someone named "brofun" about how he was able to molest a child and keep it quiet.

"How did you prevent him from telling your friend?" asked sdattorney.

Brofun responded: "Money and fear."

sdattorney asked: "How did you make that happen?"

Brofun replied: "It was slow and deliberate. Made it into a game. A touching game."

In a statement, public defender Henry Coker said, "To say the least, I am saddened by this development. I have great faith and confidence in our criminal justice system and will await the outcome of the process. Mr. Lamb has not been at work, but rather exhausting his leave balances, since Sept. 2015."

10News did ask a county spokesperson whether Lamb was still defending juveniles, and whether the county would be conducting a separate internal probe, but no response was given.