Martinsville man, youth pastor faces 34 counts of child porn, exploitation

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. - A Martinsville youth pastor faces one count of child exploitation and 33 charges of possession of child pornography, according to court documents filed on Friday.




Specifically, 59-year-old Nathan J. Bailey received 33 counts of possessing child porn (all Level 5 Felonies) and one count of child exploitation (Level 4 Felony), in which he is accused of "knowingly or intentionally disseminat[ing]" sexually-explicit content of a child under the age of 12.

As stated in court documents, officers from the Morgan County Sheriff's Office were called to a residence in the 1300 block of Jennifer Lane after receiving information from a group called "Bikers Against Predators" that an individual, later identified as Bailey, was in possession of child pornography.








Deputies then made contact with Bailey at the scene, where he allegedly admitted he had child porn on his phone. He also claimed he had "the mental capacity of a 10-year-old," court documents stated.




Per the documents, Bailey chatted with a man in a mutual Facebook group before he moved the conversation to an app called Telegram. That man then suggested child porn to Bailey, to which he reportedly obliged.




Those images and videos contained sexually-explicit material of children under the age of three, court documents said.




Bailey also allegedly told the man he had been with a child in the past. In an interview with police, Bailey admitted that there were allegations he had engaged in sexual activity with children, though he denied having ever done so.




All he did was "looky looky, no touchy touchy," court documents reported.








Bailey had also allegedly paid a woman on Telegram with an Apple gift card to receive additional child porn. Bailey told the MCSO officers that "he knows this is wrong" and "has researched the penalties for this type of offense," the docs indicated.




Though Bailey was banned from Telegram, court docs said he continued to reach out to individuals on Facebook for child sexual abuse material, paying some of them for the alleged content.




Documents also reported that Bailey admitted to being a licensed daycare worker in the past, as well as a youth pastor for the past 10 years at New Life Christian Church in Paragon, Ind.




After receiving a search warrant, officers from the MCSO said in court documents that they found 23 videos and 10 images of child pornography, consistent with the type of content Bailey had described to them.




According to online court records, Bailey's initial hearing is scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m.





via: https://fox59.com/news/martinsville-youth-pastor-faces-34-counts-of-child-porn-exploitation/