Royse City, TX – After a year-long investigation in which seasoned task force agents said “Holy crap” a lot, Methodist minister Steve Richardson was arrested Wednesday on child pornography charges. For the last two years, Richardson has been the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Royse City, Texas, a town just east of Dallas.  He is married and a father of three – two boys and an infant girl adopted from Ethiopia during the investigation into his online activities. 

Pastor Steve is not the brightest bulb in the socket, Southern Methodist University degree or no.  I really am at the point where I think that the divinity schools need to launch a new course in their curriculum:  How Not To Disgrace Your Entire Religion For Dummies.  Richardson is such a tool that he actually traded child erotica and child pornography under the email addresses “girlpedolover@yahoo.com” and “girlpedolover@hushmail.com”  Why?  Because Steve Richardson is the worst kind of assclown pedophile ever.  His flock will say that he was sick, that he wanted to get caught.  I say he thought nobody would ever suspect him, and he got lazy.

It’s a good thing, too, with that new baby in the house.  Because some of the images Richardson was trading involved sexual activity on infants.  INFANTS.  So far, it does not appear that Richardson’s own children were in any of the pictures traded by him, which is a small blessing, I suppose. Then again, the investigation isn’t over yet. The Immigration Customs Enforcement bureau is still going through stuff.

The investigation into Pastor Steve Richardson started a year ago, when a child porn investigation kept turning up the name “cowboysspades”.  That name is Richardson’s Google Hello photo trading user name.  The email address associated with that account was “girlpedolover@hushmail.com”.  A man who was arrested in the September 2007 bust said that “cowboysspades” had sent him “homemade” child pornography images during the three months prior to his arrest.  The ICE put an agent on Richardson, and waited. In December 2007, “cowboysspades” sent one kiddie porn pic to the undercover agent, along with five other images of what is classified as “child erotica” – meaning that it’s not dirty enough to be porn, but it showed a clothed child in sexual poses.

In February 2008, the same undercover ICE agent got another five images of child erotica from “cowboysspades.” Again, the photos showed clothed children in sexual situations. However, there was no doubt about intent – Richardson was clearly using the photos as teasers for other, more explicit pictures to follow.

From the US Attorney’s Office statement on this case:  Further forensic investigation revealed additional chats between cowboysspades and others. In one, cowboysspades received and distributed dozens of images of child pornography including several images of infants engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Investigators dotted their i’s and crossed their Ts, matching up Richardson’s user names and email addresses with Google records, e-mail servers and IP addresses.  It was pretty easy to link “cowboysspades” and the “girlpedolover” email accounts to a Steve Richardson of Royse City, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.  Especially since one of the IPs used came from the church.

On Wednesday, Pastor Steve was arrested as his office at the church.  After his arrest, Richardson admitted to an ICE agent that he used the name “cowboysspades.” He also admitted to trading child pornography on his work computer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

So.. wait.  He was trading kiddie porn FROM CHURCH? Of course he was. Right after Children’s Church, no doubt.

Immediately upon hearing of Richardson’s arrest, the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church suspended him, saying, “The church holds the sanctity of the pastoral office and the place of the church as an environment of safety and security for all an absolute value.”

Before taking over the ministry at First United Methodist of Royse City, Richardson pastored for five years at the First United Methodist Church in Boyd, Texas. I know the Methodists like to move ‘em around every so often, but it makes one wonder if there was a little red flag somewhere, doesn’t it?

The investigation into Pastor Steve Richardson is ongoing.  Currently, he is charged with transporting child pornography. Other charges may be forthcoming.

Unamused Cat is disgusted in our forums.

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