FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ABP) — A former Baptist pastor and volunteer police chaplain has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for distributing child pornography.
Bernard Squires
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Bernard Squires, 65, of rural Columbia City, Ind., pleaded guilty March 2 to distribution of materials depicting the sexual exploitation of minors.
On June 7, U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann sentenced Squires to 12 years and seven months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. The judge dismissed a second count of possession of child pornography as part of a plea agreement.
Squires was indicted last July as part of an FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force to combat peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography in the Fort Wayne, Ind., area. Prosecutors said his home computer contained at least 10,000 pornographic images and 5,000 videos, some of children younger than 12. He allegedly shared at least 600 images with others on multiple occasions.
At the time of his arrest, Squires was pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Columbia City, a small congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, State Convention of Baptists in Indiana and Northeast Indiana Baptist Association. He also volunteered as a chaplain with the Whitley County Sheriff's Department.
According to a television reporter who attended Squires' sentencing, he told the judge "I sinned against God, my wife and my daughter" and that "I could never forgive myself" for the crimes.
Investigators said Squires never sexually abused a child during his time as pastor at Grace Baptist Church or police chaplain and that he never produced any of the pornographic images found on his computer and videotapes.
After his release from prison, he will participate in sex-offender counseling, lie-detector tests and other treatment programs.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.