CARL JUNCTION, Mo. • A former Carl Junction police officer is facing up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

The Joplin Globe reports Seth Wilkins, 29, entered into a plea deal with prosecutors on Monday. He had been facing up to seven years if convicted on the charge.

Wilkins was charged in 2010 after an internal investigation of suspected improper online chats with an underage girl turned up evidence of child porn on the officer's personal computer.

The Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force was asked to investigate after several suspected video files of child porn were found on the computer.

Wilkins later admitted downloading such videos from the Internet since 2004.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28.