David Lloyd Walther (Williamson County Jail, Instagram:@myfaithbc screenshot)
A 57-year-old pastor in Texas will spend years behind bars after he admitted to having a trove of BDSM and bestiality-themed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), some of which authorities said he downloaded and saved on a computer belonging to his church. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Thursday ordered David Lloyd Walther to serve a sentence of six years in a federal correctional facility, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show
Walther pleaded guilty in June to one enhanced count of possession of child pornography. After serving his term, Walther will serve an additional 10 years of supervised release.
“Many families in the Round Rock area placed their trust in this man when he served as a leader in faith for their community,” U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “I hope that those families can find comfort in knowing our law enforcement partners and justice system are committed to protecting them, ensuring that predators such as Walther cannot continue to pose a threat to innocent children.”
Federal authorities said that Walther knowingly searched for, downloaded, distributed, and possessed CSAM, including child pornography — some of which depicted prepubescent minors — using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
Investigators said they traced downloads of the CSAM to an IP address connected to the Faith Baptist Church 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 residence in Georgetown, Texas,” a police affidavit said. “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.”
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.
The probable cause affidavit states 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 adult 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.
In interviews with authorities, prosecutors said Walther 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 further admitted that he had a habit of “purging” the illicit files when he felt guilty, knowing that what he had done was wrong, per the affidavit.
Throughout the adjudication process, authorities repeatedly emphasized that Walther’s conduct was particularly abominable because he was in a position of trust within the local community.
“This case was especially disturbing given the defendant’s position of trust in the community,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Oliver E. Rich, Jr. said in a statement. “This sentencing sends a strong message to child predators that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will never relent in our duty to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation wherever these crimes are present in our nation.”
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