(SALT LAKE CITY, UT) -- A former aide to Eunice Kennedy Shriver was convicted Wednesday of distributing child pornography over the Internet and traveling to Utah to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.

Thomas J. Pearl faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he's sentenced July 26.

Pearl, 40, testified he sent images of child pornography to an Internet companion who turned out to be a licensed therapist and former police officer.

Pearl's attorney, Robert Breeze, argued his client was entrapped by the woman, who may have manufactured a case against Pearl because she hoped to get a job as a cyber-sex cop.

Pearl, who lived in Maryland, was fired when the Kennedy family learned of his arrest. Shriver is a sister of the late President John F. Kennedy, the late Sen. Robert Kennedy and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.