Police: Baltimore Co. Church Deacon Admits to Watching Child Porn

WJZ
March 1, 2013

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/03/01/church-deacon-charged-with-possession-of-child-porn/


A longtime church deacon–arrested for possession of child pornography.

Investigators say they found multiple sexually explicit images of children on the computer of 67-year-old William Albaugh.

Meghan McCorkell has more on the disturbing discovery.

Police arrested the church deacon Friday morning after they say he confessed to possessing child pornography.

It was what investigators found inside the home of 67-year-old William Albaugh that landed the deacon behind bars–image after image of children in sexually explicit poses and engaging in sexual acts.

Investigators have seized two computer towers, an iPad, multiple thumb drives, a zip disk and a hard drive from the home.

According to charging documents, Albaugh admitted he’s been viewing child porn since the 1970s–even going to adult book stores in Baltimore City to get it.

Police were alerted after they say Albaugh saved 23 pornographic images on a backup storage system.

“Verizon online notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of their subscribers had stored images of child pornography on their online cloud storage system,” said Cpl. John Wachter, Baltimore County Police.

Albaugh has been a deacon at St. Joseph Catholic Church for 17 years. He’s now been suspended from his duties.

Albaugh told investigators while he understood the children in the pictures were sexually abused, he’d never harm a real child.

“This investigation so far has indicated that none of the children at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Nottingham were victims,” Wachter said.

Church leaders have put out a statement saying in part:

“The Archdiocese of Baltimore is committed to protecting children and helping to heal victims of abuse.”

William Albaugh has been released on $75,000 bail.

Click here to read the full statement from the Archdiocese and to get phone numbers to report any abuse.

The Archdiocese will hold a special meeting at St. Joseph on Monday night to discuss the deacon’s arrest.

Investigators will now comb through all the evidence seized from the deacon’s house to see if any other charges will be filed.