Ex-youth pastor jailed weekends for possessing child pornography

By Steve Bruce
Chronicle-Herald
May 26, 2014

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1210142-ex-youth-pastor-jailed-weekends-for-possessing-child-pornography

A former youth pastor has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for having child pornography on his computer.

Aaron Kenneth Hudgins, 31, of Timberlea pleaded guilty recently in Halifax provincial court to a charge of possession of child pornography.

Judge Bill Digby accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers to allow Hudgins to serve his jail time intermittently.

Hudgins will do his time at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth on weekends beginning June 6.

The judge also placed Hudgins on probation for one year and ordered him to provide a DNA sample for a national databank and register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Hudgins was arrested last Nov. 1 and charged with possessing and accessing child pornography. The arrest followed a three-month investigation by members of the Halifax Regional Police-RCMP Internet child exploitation unit.

He resigned later that day as a youth pastor at Timberlea Baptist Church and was suspended from his job at the National Research Council in Halifax.

The Crown withdrew the accessing charge after Hudgins was sentenced for possession.