Former Youth Minister Charged After Wife Found Thousands Of Child Porn Images On Computer
A former youth minister and pastor in Arkansas was arrested and hit with child porn charges after his wife found thousands of incriminating images on their shared laptop computer.
The laptop was shared by 39-year-old Tony Waller and his wife Angela, and when she was searching for an old file on the computer, she turned up what turned out to be “tens of thousands” of child pornography related images and videos. She immediately reported the matter to police, and Waller was arrested on child porn charges.
SHOCKING: Pastor’s Turned in by His Wife Who Found ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Child Porn Files in his Possession http://t.co/4sq9k2wz2k
— Wilfred Asuquo (@freddyasq) May 12, 2015
Raw Story reported that, according to Jonesboro police Detective Brandon King, Angela was very surprised and shocked to find “thousands of images of prepubescent girls either completely nude or scantily clad,” along with a huge amount of other child porn images that her husband had saved on the laptop.
Reportedly, when she confronted her husband about the child porn on the computer, the pastor apparently confessed to Angela that he had been addicted to child pornography for around 20 years.
According to Pastor Matt Smith, Waller was fired as soon as the First Assembly of God, where he had worked for the last 15 years, heard about the child porn allegations. Smith did stress that as far as they know, the allegations do not involve the church itself.
“To the best of our understanding, the allegations against Mr. Waller don’t involve our church as far as we know.”
However Pastor Smith encouraged members of the church to not judge Waller, asking them to “show tremendous love for his family and continue to love him.”
Arkansas youth pastor’s wife turns him in after finding ‘tens of thousands’ of child porn files http://t.co/MhtyHqJoJh
— margaret stuart md (@marstu67) May 7, 2015
Reportedly after his arrest and charging for child porn, Waller has been released from jail on a $2,500 bail.
According to ArkansasOnline, this is not the first Arkansas minister to be arrested on child porn charges in the last month or so. On April 8, police arrested John-Mark Wilson, 45, the pastor of Brookland Church of Christ, after police found pornography on a computer taken from Wilson’s home.
In other related news, the Inquisitr reported the story of a pastor who killed his wife so that he could be with his gay lover.
[Image: Mug shot courtesy Jonesboro police]
