Global Courant
A Texas pastor pleaded guilty to an increased charge of possession of child sexual abuse images after admitting to downloading some of the material at his church, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas and court documents.
David Lloyd Walther, 57, “knowingly sought, downloaded, distributed and possessed” child sexual abuse images, some of which depicted prepubescent minors, on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network while pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, a town 18 miles north of Austin, The US Attorney’s Office said on Thursday.
Walther was arrested Nov. 9 after a search of his home and car found two large computer hard drives containing more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos of child sexual abuse material, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He was released on November 17 under house arrest with GPS monitoring and prohibited from using computers or having contact with minors.
Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas.Google Maps
He filed a plea of guilty in Texas’s Western District Court on Tuesday, court records show.
Walther could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
It was not immediately clear when he would be sentenced. A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office said no sentencing date had yet been set.
Walther’s lawyers and representatives of Faith Baptist Church were also not immediately available on Monday.
Court documents outlining the disturbing allegations show that Walther downloaded some of the material to a computer while at church. The complaint alleges that he also downloaded other child sexual abuse material to a computer at his residence in Georgetown, a town about 10 miles north of Round Rock.
When investigators searched Walther’s residence after obtaining federal search warrants, he allegedly admitted, among other things, “that he had a porn addiction and often went through cycles of downloading and viewing pornography with both adults and minors,” but that he did not know according to the indictment, he shared the child sexual abuse files on the peer-to-peer network.
Walther also allegedly admitted that “he would download child pornography files but would often feel guilty and would ‘clean up’ files, i.e. delete the images and associated files, because he knew it was wrong”, adding that he last deleted such files on Nov. 8, the night before authorities issued the search warrants, the complaint states. He apologized for his actions, the indictment said.
In a statement Walther filed with the court the day after his arrest, he wrote that he was “ashamed and disgusted by my actions and behavior” and considers himself a pedophile. He wrote that he estimated that he first saw depictions of child sexual abuse when he was 10 years old, and that he began to have regular access to such material about eight years before his arrest.
He also seemed to endorse his own detention: “If there is no proven and accepted method to help with my addiction to child pornography, then I should be separated from society forever,” Walther wrote.
Walther also filed a statement on Nov. 10 admitting to “grooming” an unidentified minor or minors for future sexual conduct or activity.
