A 57-year-old pastor in Texas admitted to having a vast trove of BDSM- and bestiality-themed child pornography on his various electronic devices.
According to court documents, David Lloyd Walther pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in federal court last week.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Walther knowingly “searched for, downloaded, distributed and possessed child sexual abuse material, including child pornography – some of which depicted pre-adolescent minors.”
The bureau said Walther used BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, to download more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos containing child sexual abuse material found during a search of his home and car in November 2022 became.
If convicted, Walther faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
David Lloyd Walther, a former pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography
Walther used to be the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, about 20 miles north of Austin
At the time of his arrest, Walther was pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas, about 20 miles north of Austin.
Federal investigators said they traced downloads of the child sexual abuse material to an IP address associated with Faith Baptist Church.
The affidavit states: “On our September 18, 2022 at 00:15, a successful download of child pornography was performed from the IP address 69.212.115.82 via BitTorrent.”
“On October 6, 2022, information provided by AT&T in response to a court hearing revealed that the subscriber to the IP address 69.212.115.82 at 12:15 a.m. on September 18, 2022 was the defendant WALTHER at his private residence in Georgetown, Texas.”
“The IP address 69.212.115.82 is a static IP address and has only been assigned to defendant WALTHER’s residence since May 3, 2022, when Walther’s account was opened at that location,” it said.
Subsequently, on November 9, 2022, search warrants were executed. Authorities confiscated two large computer hard drives full of child sexual abuse material.
In an affidavit, prosecutors wrote that Walther had a computer folder titled “BDSM” that contained children’s graphic material.
After the search warrants were executed, Walther agreed to speak voluntarily with federal agents, according to prosecutors, and was told at the time that he was not under arrest.
Allegedly, Walther admitted to a pornography addiction. He said he would “go through cycles of downloading and viewing pornography depicting both adults and minors.”
He added that when he viewed child pornography, the children pictured were “between the ages of 8 and 17 and were either sexually posing or engaging in sexual acts with adults or children,” the affidavit said, which included a summary, but no direct transcript of the defendant’s testimony provides evidence.
Walther told authorities that in the past he had “cleaned up” illegal material when he felt guilty and knew what he had done was wrong.
If convicted, Walther faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine
The FBI is investigating the case through the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, based at the FBI’s San Antonio division
The FBI is investigating the case through the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, based at the FBI’s San Antonio division. They are assisted by the Round Rock Police Department, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center.
Assistant US Attorney Matthew Devlin is leading the case.