[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A youth pastor in South Carolina has been accused of filming ladies within the lavatory at a church in South Carolina.
According to a number of information stories, 35-year-old ex-pastor Daniel Kellan Mayfield (pictured in his mugshot, above) has been charged with 5 counts of first diploma sexual exploitation of a minor. He has additionally been charged with one depend of voyeurism after being recognized as an alleged suspect in a separate incident.
Related: Christian Conservatives Are DEFENDING Youth Pastor Who Dated A 14-Year-Old!
This all began final month when deputies on the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office in upstate South Carolina had been notified Mayfield had allegedly filmed a girl who was having a shower in a non-public dwelling there. Per WCSC, the lady was showering when she observed a vivid mild outdoors her window. When she went to analyze, she allegedly discovered Mayfield “standing alone” within the yard.
Cops started to analyze, and so they took out a warrant for Mayfield’s cellular phone. That’s after they discovered one thing much more disturbing.
When Greenwood County cops searched Mayfield’s telephone, in response to WJBF News, the deputies allegedly discovered recordings that had been taken of underage women and girls within the lavatory on the First Baptist Church within the city of Gowensville, South Carolina. The church had been using Mayfield as a youth pastor.
Upon wanting by the photographs and recordings discovered on the telephone, cops “identified six victims.” Now, they’re working to determine the identities of extra ladies who had been captured in recordings.
Per WJBF, Mayfield allegedly “confessed to making the recordings” when he was interrogated by Greenwood County sheriff’s deputies. They now consider Mayfield arrange a secret video recording system within the ladies’s lavatory contained in the First Baptist Church “on at least three occasions” courting again to final summer season. The ladies captured on video within the lavatory stalls are mentioned to be “as young as 14 years old,” per the information outlet.
Related: Youth Pastor & High School Coach Among 46 Arrested In Sex Trafficking Sting
Those deputies contacted the sheriff’s workplace in close by Greenville County — the place Gowensville is located — to report the incident. Mayfield was formally arrested and booked in that county on the sexual exploitation expenses on Thursday of final week. He has since been fired from his youth pastor function.
For what it’s value, sheriff’s deputies have advised native media shops they do not consider anybody else on the church was concerned in recording or viewing the movies. Even so, First Baptist Gowensville has moved to distance themselves from Mayfield. In addition to firing him, they launched an announcement final week noting they’re conscious of “an incident of moral misconduct perpetrated by one of our staff members.”
The church’s assertion went on:
“We remain dedicated to providing a safe worship environment and will be ever vigilant in protecting all persons involved in any of our events.”
Per People, Mayfield is at present being held on the Greenville County Detention Center.
A choose selected not to grant Mayfield bond. He will subsequent seem earlier than a circuit court docket choose later this month to find out whether or not he might qualify to be launched on bond previous to court docket hearings forward of a trial.
Related: Youth Pastor Arrested After Admitting To Underage Sex Crime
One horrified church member in Gowensville, Isabella Godfry, spoke to WYFF News in regards to the state of affairs:
“You would never think someone you know. That’s like a family, because that’s what our church is, it’s like a family. You would never think something so devastating would happen in that little circle of people.”
Another church member named Benjamin Green spoke to WJBF about it, too:
“I’m concerned about my wife and my daughters being on that camera.”
You can see extra on this terrible state of affairs (beneath):
Despicable.
Our hearts exit to the women and girls who had been violated on this alleged act.
If you may have honest trigger to suspect youngster abuse, name the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
If you or somebody has skilled sexual violence and want to be taught extra about sources, take into account testing https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via WYFF News 4/YouTube/Greenville County Sheriff’s Office]
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