In federal court this week, a group of 14 women sued David Lloyd Walther, a former Texas pastor who pleaded guilty in 2023 to an “enhanced charge of possession of child pornography.” The plaintiffs, using pseudonyms, said they were each younger than 12 when they were sexually abused—and that their images appeared in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found in Walther’s possession.
Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse, which some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing.
Soon after Walther’s guilty plea, the women were contacted by the U.S. Justice Department’s Victim Notification System and informed that investigators had found CSAM depicting them. “Exercising their right to review the evidence in the criminal case,” the lawsuit stated, “plaintiffs have each confirmed through their representatives that images of their child sex abuse are contained within the collection of [CSAM] seized by law enforcement from Walther.”
This week’s lawsuit used a pseudonym for each plaintiff and redacted the name of the “child pornography series” in which she is depicted.
Under federal legislation known as “Masha’s Law,” people who are convicted of possessing CSAM must pay restitution to their victims. Those victims can choose either “actual damages” or $150,000 in liquidated damages. Each plaintiff suing Walther requested liquidated damages, claiming to have suffered “personal injury” as a result of his crime.
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Before his arrest in November 2022, David Lloyd Walther served as pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas. He also had previously volunteered as a chaplain for the local police department.
Walther was charged with knowingly searching for, downloading, distributing, and possessing child pornography. The pastor, then 56, downloaded CSAM and made it available through the peer-to-peer file-sharing network BitTorrent, authorities said.
In federal court this week, a group of 14 women sued David Lloyd Walther, a former Texas pastor who pleaded guilty in 2023 to an “enhanced charge of possession of child pornography.”Click to PostInvestigators who searched Walther’s house and vehicle found “two large computer hard drives” with more than 100,000 CSAM images and more than 5,000 CSAM videos.
According to this week’s lawsuit, Walther told police he “had an addiction to pornography,” sought out CSAM, and then downloaded it through the church’s computer network.
