The U.S. Attorney's office said 48-year-old Todd Parrilla of Stonington pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Hartford to receipt and distribution of child pornography. Parrilla had a pediatric practice in southeastern Connecticut.

"This defendant possessed and distributed tens of thousands of images and videos portraying the sexual abuse of children," said U.S. Attorney David Fein. "This is a heinous crime. That it was committed by a pediatrician, whose profession is committed to the well-being of children, makes it especially disturbing."

His attorney, Alan J. Sobol, declined to comment when contacted after the court hearing.

A law enforcement officer in Kansas City, Mo., acting in an undercover capacity, last year logged into a publicly available Internet file sharing program and downloaded 104 images of child pornography from a shared directory maintained by Parrilla, prosecutors said.

Parrilla was arrested last August following the execution of a search and seizure warrant at his residence. Prosecutors say an analysis of the seized computers and hard drives revealed more than 100,000 images and more than 10,000 videos depicting child pornography.

The pornography included images of boys under the age of 12 engaging in sexually explicit conduct, authorities said. Some of the material portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence, prosecutors said.

At the time of his arrest, Parrilla was employed as a pediatrician in Pawcatuck.

Parrilla has been released on bond under strict supervision of the U.S. Probation Office. A condition of his bond includes that he have no unsupervised contact with children under 18, prosecutors said

Parrilla faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years when he is sentenced Oct. 24.