Former pastor sentenced to 10 years in prison for child porn possession

A former North Carolina pastor has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for possession of kid pornography after an investigation revealed that he had been downloading the fabric from a pc on the church the place he labored. 

In a press release launched final Thursday, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Western District of North Carolina introduced that Ashley Crouse of Granite Falls was sentenced to 10 years in jail and a lifetime of supervised launch for possession and receipt of kid pornography. Crouse, 53, may even must register as a intercourse offender after he is launched from jail. Previous to his arrest, Crouse was a pastor at a church in Caldwell County, North Carolina. 

Whereas the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace didn’t specify which church he labored at, a 2023 report from Queen Metropolis Information revealed that he labored at New Imaginative and prescient Baptist Church in Granite Falls. The information station stated the church terminated Crouse following his arrest and members seen his conduct because the “greatest betrayal of their belief.”

Crouse’s sentencing follows a collaborative effort between the FBI’s Charlotte Division, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Workplace and the Hickory Police Division as a part of Mission Protected Childhood. In keeping with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Mission Protected Childhood is “a nationwide initiative to fight the rising epidemic of kid sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in Might 2006 by the Division of Justice.”

The initiative, which is led by U.S. Attorneys’ Workplaces in addition to the Felony Division’s Youngster Exploitation and Obscenity Part, allows “federal, state and native assets to raised find, apprehend and prosecute people who exploit youngsters through the web, in addition to to establish and rescue victims.” 

The investigation into Crouse’s possession of kid pornography dates again to April 2023, when the Nationwide Heart for Lacking and Exploited Kids knowledgeable regulation enforcement {that a} Dropbox consumer had uploaded content material that constituted youngster sexual abuse materials. After figuring out Crouse because the Dropbox consumer, regulation enforcement officers executed a search warrant for the pastor’s property seven months later. 

Upon looking out Crouse’s workplace on the church, regulation enforcement seized a pc tower, an iPad and two thumb drives. The pastor admitted that he had used his pc on the church to “entry, view and obtain” youngster pornography over a interval lasting between 5 and 6 years. 

Regulation enforcement found greater than “1,200 movies and 450 photos depicting the sexual abuse of youngsters.” The investigation additionally uncovered Crouse’s use of synthetic intelligence and a software program program to make the pornographic materials, in addition to his distribution of the content material by the Telegram app. 

The church pc contained “a e book that outlines intimately sexually abuse youngsters” and “an anti-forensic science program” that he used “to completely delete information and folders.” The sentencing of Crouse comes six months after he pleaded responsible to possession of kid pornography that concerned a minor who had not attained the age of 12 and the receipt of kid pornography. 

Crouse is in federal custody and will likely be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons “upon designation of a federal facility.”