MO Pastor Sentenced for Child Porn 'Prayed for God to Intervene'

(Duenweg, MO) -- A pastor from southwest Missouri is sentenced to three years and ten months for possessing child pornography.

David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, says Michael Alan Crippen, 53, of Duenweg, must also serve a term of 20 years of supervised release following his incarceration.

Crippen, the pastor at FirstBaptistChurch in Duenweg, was charged in the case in October 26, 2010.

Ketchmark says Crippen admitted that in August 2009 he downloaded ten images of child pornography from a website, and viewed images of adult and child pornography via the internet for several years.

According to court documents, Crippen was identified during an investigation by the Dutch National Police into a website in the Netherlands.  Ketchmark says Europol provided information to federal agents in the United States, who identified Crippen's computer as one that downloaded child pornography in August 2009.

On October 13, officers took his laptop and desktop computers from his home. They say they found at least 100 images of child pornography on the computers, including children under 10 years of age.

Ketchmark says in Crippen's plea agreement, he stated that he'd prayed for God to intervene in his pornography problem.

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Update: SW Missouri Pastor Pleads Guilty to Child Porn