“Isn’t it a famous old story that the man who has to read all thepornography in order to decide what’s fit to be passed and what is fit not to be, is the man most likely to become debauched?” ~ Christopher Hitchens
A Green Bay, Wisconsin church intern who said he wants to become a pastor was charged Friday with three counts of possession of child pornography.
Gaston Parker Pechholt, 20, appeared in a Brown County courtroom Friday, where bond was set at $25,000.
Each charge carries up to 25 years in prison if convicted, with a mandatory minimum prison time of 3 years.
According to the criminal complaint, Brown County Sheriff’s Office investigators found three videos on an iPad belonging to Pechholt.
The videos were of prepubescent girls, including one who appears to be 6 to 8 years old, showing off their naked bodies and genitals.
Ratted out by Kik
Kik, which makes instant messaging software, alerted law enforcement that a user shared an image of child pornography back in January. The tip made its way to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, which used a search warrant to trace the user’s IP address to an iPad at a rented Green Bay home.
Sheriff’s investigators went to the home. The man who answered the door said he didn’t own an iPad but his roommate did. His roommate, Pechholz, was at work at Celebration Church, where he was an intern.
The Devil — umm, I mean Porn made me do it!
Pechholz let investigators look at the contents of his iPad and eventually admitted he has a pornography addiction. He said Instagram and Kik both canceled his accounts because of his “pornography activity”.
He said he started looking at child porn when he was 15, first because he imagined himself to be a vigilante fighting against pedophiles, but then became aroused by it. He said he never produced any images or videos of child pornography but knew it was illegal to possess or view it. He also said he would cooperate with investigators and give them information about the websites where he found child pornography.
Celebration Church Pastor Mark Gungor provided Action 2 News with a statement that neatly throws the adult industry under the bus while distancing himself and that employed this pervert church from Pechholt:
We were very saddened to hear about the arrest of an intern associated with Celebration Church on the charges of possessing child pornography. (He actually was an intern for Transition One, an organization supported by the church. He did not work directly for the church.)
Pornography is a terrible poison that is affecting the lives of millions of men and women, creating addictions, destroying marriages, and often times leading to destructive behaviors.
Parker was at no time in direct contact with children at Celebration. While he aspired to become a Pastor some day, he was not a pastor for any religious organization. He was a young intern donating his time to assist TRANSITION ONE, which is a gap year program for young men and women to help them as they transition from high school to college and/or career.
We wish God’s grace on Parker and hope he will find the healing he needs. Churches are hospitals for sick souls and we stand ready and willing to minister to any and all, no matter what their struggles.
Pastor Mark Gungor
Celebration Church
Once again, the people who want to tell us how to live, and who claim they best know right from wrong, and the good from the bad, are shown to have the most corrupt and debauched people in their own midst.
2 Responses
Politicians and Religious people show time and time again they are the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
If he did it, he should do significant time. I don’t recommend the death penalty, however, because he didn’t actually molest the kids. 20-25 years in prison getting “special” treatment from his fellow non-chester inmates should serve as deterrence and retribution. I don’t know how prisons work in Wisconsin so I don’t know what his fellow inmates do to chesters. I am sure they punish them somehow, though.