Raymond Robin Watts, 55, of 21 Gatepost Lane, Kingston, initially pleaded not guilty in March to giving an undercover agent a flash drive containing 1,027 sexually explicit images of children.
However, on Thursday Watts entered a guilty plea before Judge Robert L. Vining.
Watts was a teacher at Mill Creek Middle School in Woodstock when he was arrested in February after a months long investigation that included video surveillance.
According to court testimony during Watts' March arraignment he told an undercover U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent he would place himself around young children and became a swim coach at Mill Creek Middle School just to be around young boys.
Watts does not deny that the exchange with the agent occurred, or that images were found on his home computer. He did dispute the number of images found on his computer.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg the photos were turned over to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and four boys were identified as being from outside of Georgia.
Watts is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3 and could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years, said Steinberg.
Judge Vining did say there could be chance Watts would have to pay restitution to the victims in this case, the children depicted in the images.
“If any victim comes forward in this case, I’ve got to consider this,” Vining said.
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