Former church worker sentenced to 50 years for sexual abuse and child pornography

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com

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.

An attorney for Jason Michael Hankins, 34, filed a not guilty plea and waived arraignment before Bessemer Cutoff Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Hobdy in the nine new cases. A cutoff grand jury had indicted Hankins in January on those charges.

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.

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