Former Church Worker Sentenced to 50 Years for Sexual Abuse and Child Pornography

By Kent Faulk
AL.com
August 31, 2016

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/08/former_church.html

Jason Michael Hankins

A former church staff member was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years in prison for sexually abusing a seven-year-old child and possessing child pornography in 2013, federal authorities announced.

Jason Michael Hankins, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a child, plus 20 more years for possessing child pornography, according to a joint statement from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton.

Coogler also ordered Hankins to remain on supervised release for the rest of his life after completing his prison sentence, according to the statement. Hankins pleaded guilty to the charges in January.

Hankins had worked at Shades Crest Baptist Church in Hoover as part of the Family Life Center staff, assisting in the planning and coordinating of recreational activities, according to the statement. Hankins found his young victim by seeking out a single mother on a Christian dating website, according to the statement.

The government in its sentencing memorandum to the court, according to the statement, recommended a 50-year prison sentence in the case. Such a sentence is reasonable, the government argued, because Hankins "targeted the victim, engaged in a repeated pattern, lasting the entire time he had access to the child, of sexual exploitation of a very young child ..." Not only did Hankins sexually abuse the child, but he used his cell phone to memorialize the child's nightmare, the government stated.

The seven-year-old child was not Hankins' only victim, as he possessed more than 100 videos and more than 1,000 images of child pornography, including a video of a man raping a toddler, according to the sentencing memorandum.

The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Hutzell prosecuted.

Hankins also faces a number of state charges in Jefferson County and Shelby County.