OREGON/COLORADO
Raw Story
TRAVIS GETTYS
14 SEP 2016
A youth pastor who says he loves “spoiling” boys on camping trips is accused of producing child pornography in national parks throughout the West.
James Parkhurst was arrested Aug. 2 in Portland, Oregon, where he serves as executive director of the Oregon-Idaho Conference Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries, reported the Denver Post.
The 56-year-old Parkhurst is accused of producing 163 pornographic images of five boys taken at national parks in Colorado and other states, which court documents show he then sent by U.S. Mail to collectors in 15 states.
The images show nude or partially nude boys between the ages of 9 and 12, sometimes bathing or urinating, and often “smiling or smirking with an expression that suggests sexual coyness,” court documents show.
Parkhurst, a United Methodist deacon and Kentucky native, regularly took boys on camping trips between 2007 and 2014 and worked at camps throughout his life.
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