FARGO-- A federal judge sentenced a former UND Police officer to serve a decade in prison for child pornography Monday.

Paul Bradley Meagher, 43, was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison, with an additional 10 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson. He is also ordered to pay $300 to the Crime Victims' Fund, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office for North Dakota.

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The 11-year UND Police veteran was initially charged with 10 counts of possession of child porn in Grand Forks District Court in November 2015. He was put on leave by the department when it was discovered he was the subject of an investigation and was fired shortly after charges were filed.

Court documents say investigators carried out a search warrant at Meagher's apartment on Nov. 2, 2015, where they found a laptop containing images of adults sexually abusing children as young as 4 years old.

The case was moved to federal court on Nov. 18, 2015. Meagher pleaded guilty to one count of possession of materials containing child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography in September.

An investigation conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations within Department of Homeland Security and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation revealed the possession of more than 50,000 images and videos containing child pornongraphy, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

"It's disturbing when someone seeks to harm a child-even more so when that person is

in a position of public trust and abandons their sworn duty," said special agent in charge Alex Khu of HSI St. Paul. "The sentencing of this former police officer proves that HSI and our law

enforcement partners will actively pursue anyone engaged in harming our community's most

vulnerable members."

Meagher is one of three former UND employees who have been charged in federal court with child porn charges in recent years.

In July, Robert William Beattie, a former UND chairman of the Family and Community Medicine Department, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for having 3,233 images and 100 videos of child porn.

Former UND aviation professor Eric Hewitt Basile is set to go to federal trial April 11 on one count of receipt and distribution of materials containing child pornography and three counts of possession of materials containing child pornography.