An Edmonton man has pleaded guilty to downloading and owning thousands of pictures and videos depicting child pornography after an investigation that began in Saskatoon eventually led to his door.

Anthony Jared McLintock, 33, told police he routinely deleted his collection of child pornography because it was “wrong,” then asked himself, “what’s the harm in it?” He would then download more illegal files, he told Edmonton investigators in October 2012.

Months before, McLintock’s collection was discovered by a Saskatoon police officer investigating the sharing of child pornography between online users. That officer downloaded 20 images from an Edmonton computer that he verified as child pornography. That particular computer had accessed 2,365 suspected child pornography files in the previous ten days, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Through a Child Protection System program available to police, the officer identified McLintock as the owner of the computer and passed the information to the Northern Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.

Local officers searched McLintock’s home in October and seized two desktop computers, two laptops, two hard drives and 78 DVDs.

McLintock told police he’d been viewing child pornography for five or six years and used several Internet programs to download files from other Internet users.

He also told police “he prefers child pornography of girls aged 10 to 13 years old because they remind him of a 13-year-old girl he used to date when he was 17 years old,” according to the facts accepted in court.

Investigators found 67,118 different images and 1,641 videos on McLintock’s computers and hard drives. Some of those files were available for other users to download through Internet sharing programs.

McLintock pleaded guilty Monday to one charge each of accessing and possession of child pornography.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 14.