A 66-year-old Albrightsville man is behind bars after being charged with 34 counts of child pornography.

An affidavit of probable cause filed by Daniel Block, a special agent with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, detailed the charges against Stanley Bernardo:

On May 8, an online investigation for offenders sharing child pornography was being conducted on the Gnutella network, a peer-to-peer network used to exchange files between computers. The IP provider identified the subscriber’s address as being registered to Stanley Bernardo, 66.

It was determined that the address was out of the detective’s jurisdiction, and the case was forwarded to Block.

At 8:10 a.m. Aug. 29, agents from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Homeland Security Investigations, and Monroe County detectives executed a search warrant at Bernardo’s home.

No one was home at the time, but a search of the home revealed an all-in-one computer in the office, which police viewed.

Block contacted Bernardo’s wife, who said that her husband, Bernardo, was at a doctor’s office.

Bernardo was contacted, and agreed to be interviewed at a table near the parking lot.

Among other things Bernardo stated that he has been looking for, downloading and viewing child pornography once or twice a week for the past several years, and that he had seen it as recently as Aug. 28.

Bernardo said he is the sole user of his computer, and gave the password for his phone and device, adding that he only uses his computer for child porn-related searches.

Bernardo said that he has used the file sharing program called Shareaza, and that he used it to look for child pornography in May of 2018 and possibly more recently.

Bernardo said that it is a “curiosity thing, because it piqued his curiosity.”

On Sept. 17, an agent from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Computer Forensic Unit informed Block of several files discovered on Bernardo’s devices. The files included at least nine videos of apparent child pornography depicting indecent contact and at least 25 images of apparent child pornography also depicting indecent contact.

Bernardo is currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Bernardo is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing at 2 p.m. Sept. 26 before District Judge Casimir T. Kosciolek of Lansford.