NEWARK — A Watchung man pleaded guilty today to filming children in the restroom of a Warren County theme park and taking sexually explicit images of minors, Newark federal prosecutors say.

Patrick Deck, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of transportation of child pornography during a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas.

He faces up to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 at a sentencing scheduled for Jan. 12, 2014.

Deck was arrested in August 2012 by New Jersey State Police after he was caught taking videos of children in the men's restroom at the Land of Make Believe amusement park in Hope.

A search of Deck's home the next day turned up multiple videos and images of child sexual abuse on Deck's computers and other electronic devices, prosecutors say. At the time, Warren County authorities said more than 100 pornographic videos and a .22-caliber rifle were seized from Deck's home.

Deck also admitted that between the years 1997 through 2010 he transported two minors, beginning when they were 11 years old, to New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Montana so that he could film them in sexually explicit conduct, prosecutors say.

He then brought those images back to his home in Watchung, they say.

In 1988, Deck was convicted in state Superior Superior Court in Burlington County of endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors say Deck photographed or filmed minors engaging in prohibited sexual acts.

The investigation was led by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the Warren County Prosecutor's Office.

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