Boy rescued from house where youth pastor made child porn, Georgia cops say
Seven people accused of possessing, distributing or producing child pornography — including one youth pastor who police say was found living with an underage victim — are now facing criminal charges in Georgia.
In a press conference on March 10, Sgt. Chris Fincher from the Floyd County Police Department announced the arrest of seven people as part of a two-day “Operation Spring Cleaning.”
Fincher said everyone arrested during this operation “was found to be in possession of child pornography that was being circulated worldwide and stored locally on hard drives and devices.”
“The images that were found on these devices were very graphic in nature,” Fincher said during the conference, adding some depicted sex acts with children between the ages of two and 12.
Fincher also said authorities rescued one teen living in the home of Austin Wray Perkins, a 25-year-old youth pastor, where “assaults were occurring and child pornography was being produced.”
“We’re excited that we were able to rescue that child from that home,” Fincher said.
Perkins is accused of “coaching the child about how to act in videos and also engaging in acts of child molestation,” according to a news release. Police said the child had no family for support and the minister was taking care of them.
According to Floyd County Jail records, Perkins was arrested on March 9 and is being held in jail without bond. He was charged with sexual exploitation of children and aggravated child molestation, records show.
Investigators have recovered stacks of devices including telephones, tablets, computers, game systems and cameras that “contain gigabytes of child pornography.” Police said investigators also found prosthetics that were being used to simulate sex acts with children.
In total, Steve Baisel with the U.S. Secret Service told WSB that investigators collected terabytes of data.
Police shared the names of the other people arrested in this case. Jackie Steve Autry, 65, from Rome, was also charged with sexual exploitation of children and remains in jail with a $15,000 bond. Other suspects were released from jail with a $15,000 bond, including Richard Castleman, 26, and Tyler Johnson, 22, and Jason Gass, 27, who were charged with computer pornography. Joab Stewart, 24, was released from jail with a $15,000 bond and is charged with sexual exploitation of children.
Castleman is from Cave Spring, the news release said, while the rest are from Rome.
A 16-year-old suspect was also involved in the case, police said, but they withheld personal information for the minor.
Investigators were working off tips that came from the Internet Crimes Against Children division of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to police. The police department also received the help of the U.S. Secret Service at the Atlanta office.
Floyd County is located northwest of Atlanta.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 7:45 AM with the headline "Boy rescued from house where youth pastor made child porn, Georgia cops say."
