Texas Pastor Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography After Finding 150,000 Files on His Computer

David Lloyd Walther pleaded guilty to an enhanced charge of possessing child pornography materials. Investigators discovered the Texas pastor’s hard drives contained more than 150,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse.

David Lloyd Walther, 57, of Georgetown, Texas served as a pastor at a church in the city of Round Rock. However, a complaint accused the Texas pastor of downloading child pornography materials and uploading them online using BitTorrent, a file-sharing network.

According to Wehner, in November 2022, authorities conducted search warrants at the house and in the vehicle of the Texas pastor. Following the search, investigators discovered two large computer hard drives that belonged to the Texas pastor.

The hard drives contained over 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos exhibiting child sexual abuse. Reports say at the time of the Texas pastor’s arrest, he was serving at Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock.

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Charges Faced by Texas Pastor

According to Donlevy, on June 27, the Texas pastor pleaded guilty in the federal court to an enhanced charge of possessing child pornography materials. Consequently, the Texas pastor will be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and will be fined up to $250,000.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a press release that the Texas pastor confessed to willingly searching, possessing, downloading, and distributing child sexual abuse materials. The investigation was conducted by the San Antonio Division of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.

The Texas pastor’s case was investigated with the assistance of the Round Rock Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Williamson County. Furthermore, the case became a part of the Project Safe Childhood launched by the DOJ in 2006 to fight the rising outbreak of child sexual abuse.

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