9 Unnamed boys - 5-13 yo - / Convicted: Jerry Nickelsen Orlando FL

Church volunteer to be sentenced in child porn case


By Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel

February 25, 2011


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.

Church volunteer sentenced to 22 years for child porn


Said defendant: I can stop being a pedophile. I can change.

Orlando Sentinel


A Baptist church volunteer who confessed to sexually abusing nine boys and was found by FBI agents to have gathered more than 10,000 pieces of child pornography was sentenced to 22 years in prison Friday.

Jerry Nickelsen, 46, promised U.S. District Judge John Antoon II that he would change, but the judge was unmoved.

In August Nickelsen, who is deaf, pleaded guilty in federal court to two crimes: possessing child pornography and distributing it. He has not been charged with harming any children, despite his confession.

He was facing a minimum of five years. The federal government had recommended a 30-year sentence.

On Friday a defense psychologist testified that Nickelsen is a pedophile who wants to change but who had undergone two failed attempts at treatment.

Nickelsen also tried to treat himself, said Richard Willis, a psychologist from Virginia who specializes in the evaluation and treatment of the deaf.

Nickelsen's self-treatment technique: prayer and child porn. He would view child porn two to three hours a night to try to keep himself from harming more children, Willis said.

Nickelsen did not testify but did read a written statement, using sign language.

He will have nothing more to do with online porn, he said. It now disgusts him and makes him sick. "I will go to church faithfully. I will promise to serve God," he said. "I know I can do this because God is always with me. … I hope you can truly understand that I am a good man. I am a good person. … I can stop being a pedophile."

He also said he had been sexually abused by an older boy when he was 10.

FBI Agent Rod Hyre, who questioned Nickelsen the day of his arrest in June, said officers found 9,000 child porn photos and 1,400 videos on the defendant's laptop and on CDs and DVDs in his Orange County bedroom.

Nickelsen also gave him a list of names, young boys whom he confessed to sexually abusing over the past 20 years, He favored boys, ages 5 to 13, Hyre said. Nickelsen had met them through his church and family.

Nickelsen said the last time he sexually abused a boy was 2005 but he had begun tickling and playing with a 5-year-old boy who came into the dry cleaning store where he worked, Hyre said.

Agents found a photo of the boy in Nickelsen's bedroom.

The judge said he imposed a harsh sentence because the amount of child porn in Nickelsen's collection was astounding and because he wanted to send a message.

"Every one of these cases involves the abuse of children, the torture of children," said Antoon. "It leaves behind people whose lives will never be the same."

Nickelsen had volunteered at First Baptist Church of Central Florida, teaching Bible classes to adults who are deaf.