Ex-Dallas cop admits surfing child porn on police computers

DALLAS (AP) — A former Dallas police officer has admitted that he surfed child pornography on police computers.

Daniel Lee Collins, 35, pleaded guilty before a federal magistrate Friday morning to possessing child pornography, prosecutors said.

Collins admitted accessing and occasionally sharing child pornography through his Google email last spring, including images that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct by the minors, according to court documents.

A July criminal complaint said Google detected pornographic images uploaded to Collins' Google account via the Dallas city internet system and alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A Dallas computer expert traced the emails to the Dallas city internet network, to which Collins had access as a senior corporal with the Dallas Police Department. The same Google accounts were also traced to Collins' residential computer.

Collins resigned from the police force earlier this week and faces up to 20 years in federal prison when sentenced Jan. 8.