Washington County Youth Pastor Sentenced In Child Porn Case

By William Bornhoft
Patch
August 7, 2017

https://patch.com/minnesota/stillwater/washington-county-youth-pastor-sentenced-child-porn-case

WASHINGTON COUNTY, MN — A youth pastor out of Cottage Grove will serve a federal prison sentence after distributing child pornography. William Leonard Helker, 47, pleaded guilty on March 3, to one count of distribution of child pornography. On July 27, United States District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz sentenced Helker to 150 months in federal prison and 15 years of supervised release.

“Helker is a dangerous child predator who disguised himself as a youth pastor. Instead of providing guidance to young people, he used his position as a trusted leader to prey upon them,” said Assistant United States Attorney Katharine Buzicky in a statement.

“This child sexual exploitation case originated in Finland with the arrest there of another child predator,” said J. Alex Khu, special agent in charge of HSI Saint Paul.

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, on October 22, 2016, Homeland Security Investigations and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that a Minnesota man exchanged child pornography with and individual in Finland.

The cybertip was listed as “Priority 1” because NCMEC assessed that children were currently in danger. Through a joint investigation, BCA and HSI agents were able to identify the Minnesota man as William Helker, a youth pastor at All Saints Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove.

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According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, Helker admitted to sending sexually explicit images of prepubescent children to individuals using social media. Helker also admitted to engaging in sexually explicit online chat conversations with someone who described herself as a 14-year-old as well as possessing thousands of image and video files containing child pornography.

Additionally, Helker admitted to creating sexually explicit collages using ordinary snapshots of real minors and superimposing the photographs onto pornographic images, according to a news release.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Katharine T. Buzicky

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations-St. Paul, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and originated with a cybertip from the European Police Office and the National Center to Missing and Exploited Children.