Texas pastor David Lloyd Walther pleads guilty to downloading child porn

A longtime Texas pastor pleaded guilty Tuesday to downloading — sometimes at his church — more than 100,000 files of ”BDSM” and bestiality-themed child pornography.

David Lloyd Walther, 57, admitted that he “knowingly searched for, downloaded, distributed and possessed child sexual abuse material, including child pornography,” the Western District of Texas’ US Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

Walther was serving his 18th year as the pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, a city 20 miles north of Austin, when he was nabbed in October for stockpiling thousands of perverted material using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. 

Walther — who immediately admitted to the crime upon his arrest — downloaded the evil content from the church as well as his own home in Georgetown.

Investigators uncovered two large computer hard drives that contained “more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos of child sexual abuse material” during a search of the clergyman’s home, prosecutors said.

The disturbing files were stored in crudely labeled folders on the computers, according to an arrest affidavit.

Walther had one titled “BDSM” that contained images of prepubescent children tied up with ropes and mouth restraints, forcing them into sexually suggestive poses and acts.

Another, called “Zoo,” contained a bestiality video involving a dog and a female toddler “likely less than three years old.”

He also downloaded several videos through BitTorrent showing young girls being sexually abused by adult men, as well as the children being forced to abuse one another.

Upon his arrest, Walther waived his Miranda rights and 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 documents state.

The pastor also admitted he had a habit of “purging” the illicit files when he felt guilty, knowing that what he had done was wrong.

He apologized and confessed several times to downloading the depraved material, but claimed he didn’t know he had been distributing the videos through BitTorrent.

Walther’s former church has since cut ties with the pervert and eradicated any sign of him from its social media channels.

Deacon David Clawson told the Fort Worth-Star Telegram last year that church leaders “regret anything” that happened under Walther’s guidance.

“The church will continue to move forward as God has led,” Clawson said.

Walther now faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000