He pleaded guilty in the Superior Court in Danbury, to promoting a minor in obscene performance and second-degree attempt to commit illicit possession of child pornography.

 

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped two previous charges against him and reduced a third.

 

The 69-year-old Krimsky faces six years in prison, with three years suspended, and 10 years probation that includes registration with the state as a sex offender for that period, and submitting a DNA sample.

 

He can plead for a reduced sentence at a January hearing.

 

The judge also ordered a pre-sentencing investigation.

 

Prosecutors said Krimsky’s computer, which was seized in 2005, had 329 images appearing to be child pornography, some of children between ages five and 15, and that multiple images of child pornography and erotica were sent and received from his e-mail address.

 

The investigation followed a 2005 tip from the New York Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

 

His attorneys, Paul Garlasco and Norman Pattis, unsuccessfully argued to Judge Frank Iannotti that Krimsky should be eligible for a special probation program that would have allowed eventual dismissal of the charges.

 

The attorneys said they were prepared to present medical evidence that Krimsky had psychological problems that led him to “temporarily” act and that he was “no threat to re-offend.”

 

Krimsky served on the USOC from 1986-1999, before returning to private business.

 

He helped raise $2 billion (£1.2 billion) for US Olympic programmes and was at the centre of efforts to bounce back from the Salt Lake City bid scandal.

 

He resigned from an International Olympic Committee commission dealing with Olympic souvenirs when he was arrested on the child pornography charges in December 2007.