Former Round Rock pastor sentenced to 70 months in prison on child porn charge

Claire Osborn, Austin American-Statesman
·2 min read
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A former Round Rock pastor was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 10 years probation for an enhanced charge of possession of child pornography, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Texas.

David Lloyd Walther, 57, was a pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock when he was arrested in 2022. He was sentenced in a federal court in Austin on Wednesday, the release said. A judge also ordered him to pay $61,000 in restitution.

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David Walther, a former pastor for the First Baptist Church of Round Rock, was sentenced to 70 months in prison on a child pornography charge.
David Walther, a former pastor for the First Baptist Church of Round Rock, was sentenced to 70 months in prison on a child pornography charge.

When authorities searched his home and car in November 2022, they found two large computer hard drives containing more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos of child sexual abuse material, the release said.

It said he searched for, distributed and possessed child pornography using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.“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 said in the news release.

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“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.”

Special FBI Agent in Charge Oliver E. Rich Jr. said in the release that "this case was especially disturbing given the defendant’s position of trust in the community.”

The FBI San Antonio Division's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case with assistance from the Round Rock Police Department, the Collin County sheriff’s office, the Williamson County sheriff's office and the Williamson County Children's Advocacy Center, the release said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Devlin prosecuted the case.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Round Rock pastor gets 70 months in prison on child porn charge