A former assistant manager of a local retail store was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

Steven Lynn Hines, 54, of Bartow County pleaded guilty in June to collecting and trading images and videos of child sex abuse, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

He was sentenced in federal court to serve seven years and fours months in prison, followed by 10 years on supervised released by U.S. District Court Judge Harold L. Murphy.

Hines, who was arrested as part of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Restore Hope, will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.

U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said in a statement that “defendants who trade child pornography are fostering a market based upon the rape and molestation of our children.”

“Mr. Hines not only collected child porn but also contributed his images of child sex abuse so that others could grow their own collections,” she said.

Robert McBurney with the U.S. Attorney’s office said Hines was identified through a GBI online investigation targeting child pornography. He was arrested on Dec. 3 at the Wal-Mart in Dawson County, where he worked.

McBurney said authorities obtained warrants to search Hines’ home in White, where they uncovered a collection of child pornography including thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

The images were found on his home computer, hard drives and disks and in organized binders, which he filled with printed Internet images.