David Lloyd Walther (Instagram/@myfaithbc screenshot, Williamson County Jail)
A 57-year-old pastor in Texas this week admitted to having a trove of BDSM and bestiality-themed child sexual abuse material, some of which authorities said he downloaded and saved on a computer belonging to his church.
David Lloyd Walther pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one enhanced count of possession of child pornography, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, Walther knowingly searched for, downloaded, distributed, and possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including child pornography — some of which depicted prepubescent minors — using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
Federal investigators said they traced downloads of the CSAM to an IP address connected to the Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock in Round Rock, Texas, where Walther was the pastor. Round Rock is about 20 miles north of Austin.
“On or about September 18, 2022, at 0015 hours, a successful download of child pornography was obtained from IP address 69.212.115.82 via BitTorrent. On October 6, 2022, information from AT&T, in response to legal process, indicated that the subscriber of IP address 69.212.115.82, at 0015 hours on September 18, 2022, was Defendant WALTHER at his personal residence in Georgetown, Texas. IP Address 69.212.115.82 is a static IP address and has been assigned only to Defendant WALTHER’s residence since May 3, 2022, when Walther’s account was initialed at that location,” the affidavit said.
Authorities executed search warrants on Walther’s home and vehicle on Nov. 9, 2022, seizing two large computer hard drives containing more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos of child sexual abuse material, officials said.
In a probable cause affidavit, prosecutors wrote that the pastor had a computer folder titled “BDSM,” which contained graphic CSAM, including an image of a nude boy with a collar on his neck being sexually abused, a similar image of a female toddler, and images of nude young boys and girls being restrained by ropes and tools.
Walther also created a computer folder titled “Zoo,” which, among other abhorrent material, contained a bestiality video involving a dog and a female toddler “likely less than three years old,” the document states.
Additionally, federal authorities said that the defendant had downloaded and saved several videos depicting young girls, some of whom appeared to be prepubescent, being sexually abused by men.
Following the execution of the search warrants, prosecutors say Walther agreed to speak with federal agents voluntarily and was told he wasn’t under arrest at that time.
The defendant allegedly admitted he had a “pornography addiction and would often go through cycles of downloading and viewing pornography depicting both adults and minors” and that “when he viewed the child pornography, the children depicted were between 8 and 17 years old, either posing sexually or engaged in sex acts with adults or other children,” the affidavit said, summarizing but not directly quoting the defendant’s statement.
Walther admitted he had a habit of “purging” the illicit files when he felt guilty, knowing that what he had done was wrong, the affidavit said.
Walther faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
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