A former Calgary teacher who faces nearly 50 charges in connection with a child sexual abuse investigation pleaded guilty in court on Thursday.

Christian Allen Sarile was originally charged in December 2016 when the family of a 14-year-old girl said she’d been meeting with a man in his late 20s and driving around with him.

A subsequent investigation by police discovered that Sarile had been meeting with a number of underage girls, using the pseudonyms ‘Josh’ and ‘Brandon’ to meet them online.

Police became more concerned when one of the victims, a 13-year-old girl, came forward and told them the man had asked for sexual favours.

Further investigation led them to discover 19 more victims, all of whom were allegedly offered items or cash in exchange for sexual favours or compromising photos.

All of the victims are between the ages of 12 and 17 and are from the Calgary area.

On Thursday afternoon, Sarile pleaded guilty to 17 charges.

He faced 49 charges including: sexual assault, sexual interference, accessing child pornography, distributing child pornography, luring and extortion.

A sentencing date has not been set.