By Ryan Foley, Christian Put up Reporter
A broken-down North Carolina pastor has been sentenced to 10 years in penal complex for possession of kid pornography after an investigation revealed that he had been downloading the realm topic from a pc at the church the set he labored.
In an announcement launched final Thursday, the U.S. Criminal professional’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina offered that Ashley Crouse of Granite Falls modified into as soon as sentenced to 10 years in penal complex and a lifetime of supervised launch for possession and receipt of kid pornography. Crouse, fifty three, will even must register as a sex offender after he’s launched from penal complex. Prior to his arrest, Crouse modified into as soon as a pastor at a church in Caldwell County, North Carolina.
While the U.S. Criminal professional’s Office did no longer specify which church he labored at, a 2023 file from Queen City Recordsdata revealed that he labored at Unique Vision Baptist Church in Granite Falls. The news station said the church terminated Crouse following his arrest and contributors viewed his habits because the “greatest betrayal of their belief.”
Crouse’s sentencing follows a collaborative effort between the FBI’s Charlotte Division, the North Carolina Whisper Bureau of Investigation, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office and the Hickory Police Division as a part of Project Safe Childhood. Constant with the U.S. Criminal professional’s Office, Project Safe Childhood is “a nationwide initiative to fight the increasing epidemic of kid sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in Could well also honest 2006 by the Division of Justice.”
The initiative, which is led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices besides to the Prison Division’s Runt one Exploitation and Obscenity Part, enables “federal, lisp and native resources to greater find, apprehend and prosecute folk who exploit adolescents by method of the online, besides to to title and rescue victims.”
The investigation into Crouse’s possession of kid pornography dates support to April 2023, when the Nationwide Heart for Missing and Exploited Adolescents told laws enforcement that a Dropbox client had uploaded grunt material that constituted child sexual abuse arena topic. After identifying Crouse because the Dropbox client, laws enforcement officers completed a search warrant for the pastor’s property seven months later.
Upon procuring Crouse’s office at the church, laws enforcement seized a pc tower, an iPad and two thumb drives. The pastor admitted that he had frail his pc at the church to “access, peek and hang” child pornography over a length lasting between five and six years.
Regulations enforcement found bigger than “1,200 movies and 450 images depicting the sexual abuse of adolescents.” The investigation also uncovered Crouse’s exhaust of synthetic intelligence and a pc tool to manufacture the pornographic arena topic, besides to his distribution of the grunt material through the Telegram app.
The church pc contained “a e-book that outlines in detail easy solutions to sexually abuse adolescents” and “an anti-forensic science program” that he frail “to permanently delete recordsdata and folders.” The sentencing of Crouse comes six months after he pleaded guilty to possession of kid pornography that alive to a minor who had no longer 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.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Put up. He might possibly possibly furthermore even be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
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