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Church volunteer to be sentenced in child porn caseFeb 25, 2011 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A man who volunteered with the deaf ministry at a Central Florida church, who also told federal agents he engaged in "sexual acts" with boys, is slated to be sentenced in Orlando federal court today on child pornography charges. Jerry Nickelsen, 46, signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in August, admitting guilt to a count of distribution of child pornography and a count of possession of child pornography. The FBI began investigating Nickelsen in May in an undercover capacity through a peer-to-peer online file sharing program. Detectives saw child pornography in Nickelsen's shared directories. When agents searched Nickelsen's Orange County home this summer, he told them he traded child porn, saved the images and videos on DVDs and CDs, and that he looked at the images for two to three hours each night, according to his plea agreement. Nickelsen also told agents he engaged in "sexual acts" with at least seven boys, ranging from 5 to 13 years old, during the past 20 years, the plea agreement said. Agents said they found more than 9,000 images and about 1,450 videos containing images of child pornography on his computer hard drives, DVDs and CDs. Nickelsen volunteered with First Baptist Church of Central Florida's deaf ministry, where he taught a beginning Bible class to adults, the senior pastor earlier told the Orlando Sentinel. Nickelsen's sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. [email protected] or 407-420-5735 To see more of The Orlando Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |