URBANA — A former Carle Clinic employee who admitted he had child pornography on computers at work and home in 2009 faces at least five and as many as 50 years in prison when he is sentenced in the spring.

Justin Davison, 27, whose last known address was in the 1600 block of North Willow Road, Urbana, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Urbana to two counts of receipt of child pornography and one of possession of child pornography.

He could also be fined up to $250,000. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.

According to the plea agreement filed in Davison's court case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Peirson, an information technology employee of Carle Clinic was trying to determine the scope of a virus purported to have invaded the company's network in December 2009 when the employee found pictures on Davison's work computer — not sexual in nature — of a 12-year-old girl that she recognized to be the child of another Carle Clinic employee.

That prompted IT officials to take a closer look at Davison's computer, where they found several pictures of young girls engaged in sex acts. As the IT team leader was looking at the files, he could see that they were being deleted by Davison, who was employed at the time as an information technology help desk employee.

Carle officials notified Urbana police, who seized what files were left on the work computer and later served a search warrant at Davison's home, where they found several computers with more child pornography.

Interviewed in January 2010, Davison admitted to Urbana detectives that he had struggled with an obsession with child pornography for six to seven years, and that more than once he had gotten rid of his computer collection of pornography only to later acquire a new collection.

Davison admitted using the file-sharing program Limewire to obtain his child pornography but said he did not share it with others. He told police he obtained the pictures of his co-worker's daughter by remotely accessing that person's computer.

A forensic examination of Davison's computers revealed that he was receiving child pornography in early 2009 and that he had more than 600 images and more than 100 movies.

U.S. Magistrate David Bernthal ordered that Davison be taken into custody immediately. He is to be sentenced May 10 by Judge Michael McCuskey.