A volunteer youth pastor at a Houston-area church was arrested on child sex abuse material charges.<\/p>\n
Carter August Thomas, 27, was arrested on Nov. 26 and charged with one felony count of possession of child pornography.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office was first alerted in August, when deputies received an email from someone who claimed Thomas had admitted to them that he struggled with viewing child abuse material online.<\/p>\n
At the time of that confession, records show Thomas was volunteering as a youth minister at Second Baptist Church, where his duties included supervising children.<\/p>\n
HCSO deputies later executed a search warrant at Thomas\u2019 home in Harris County. There, they spoke with a family member who also said Thomas had confided that he struggled with viewing \u201cthat kind of material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators searched a phone and tablet belonging to Thomas, and records state they recovered 23 images that qualified as child abuse material.<\/p>\n
Digital forensics revealed that 14 of the images had previously been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as known child abuse material. Court records also noted that the web browsing history on the devices was consistent with the recovered content.<\/p>\n
Thomas was booked into the Harris County Jail and given a $15,000 bond. His bond conditions include staying at least 1,000 feet away from places where children commonly gather, not participating in programs involving children, and not volunteering at Second Baptist or any other church.<\/p>\n
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