PENNSYLVANIA
Observer-Reporter
AP
PITTSBURGH – A former Western Pennsylvania youth pastor faces up to 20 years in prison now that federal authorities have taken over the case, charging him with possessing hundreds of images and videos of child pornography, some with adults performing sex acts with infants.
Andrew Patterson, 45, of Monroeville, was arrested in October after Allegheny County prosecutors said they traced child pornography being shared on the Internet to his computer.
Officials with the Living Waters Family Worship Center in Irwin said Patterson resigned his volunteer youth counselor position hours before his arrest.
Patterson, his wife and daughter began attending the small nondenominational church about 25 miles east of Pittsburgh in the summer. By September, Patterson had persuaded the husband-wife pastors of the church to let him start a youth ministry, which met weekly about five times before his arrest, according to Sylvia Tryon, one of the pastors.
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