A Gering man that Attorney General Jon Bruning says had thousands of images of child pornography on his computer has been sentenced to 7 years in federal prison.

30 year old year old Thomas Schildt had pleaded guilty to federal charges of receiving and distributing child pornography. He will spend 10 years on supervised release after completing his prison term, and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Bruning says the case against Schildt was the largest child pornography case his office has ever investigated, and began when his Rural Cybercrime Unit discovered child pornography being shared online from an IP address assigned to Schildt’s home.

Authorities obtained and executed a search warrant on the home last November and seized a hard drive containing more than 15,000 sexually explicit images of young children, some as young as 3 years, engaged in various sexual acts and bondage.

Schildt was indicted on state charges…3 counts of possessing child pornography and 3 counts of distributing child pornography…but those were dismissed after the federal charges were filed. Schildt later admitted to downloading the files, according to court documents.