FROM STAFF REPORTS
An Iredell County pastor has been sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of child pornography charges.
Tony Ernest Bunton, 66, of Eufola Road, Statesville, pleaded guilty Monday in Iredell County Superior Court to two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. By pleading guilty, Bunton admitted that he distributed, transported, exhibited, received, sold, purchased, exchanged, or solicited material that contains a visual representation of a minor engaged in sexual activity.
Judge William Wood sentenced Bunton to two consecutive sentences of 24 months in prison. The disgraced pastor will have to register as a sex offender when he is released from prison.
Bunton has been transported to Central Prison in Raleigh to begin serving his sentence.
The pastor was arrested on September 1, 2021, following an investigation by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit.
After receiving a cybertip that someone at Bunton’s address had accessed child pornography, SVU detectives executed a search warrant at that location and seized computers containing pictures and videos of child pornography.
Bunton was originally charged with four counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He was released on a $100,000 bond at that time.
A month later, after completing a forensic examination of the computers, detectives filed 30 additional felony charges related to the possession of child pornography.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Crystal Beale.
Can’t trust anyone.
Based on the number of pastors and youth pastors I see being arrested and convicted of pedophilia, drag queens aren’t the problem. It’s these guys. The second biggest demographic I see online being caught is cops.
Just another example of failure in our justice system… he got 4 years!?! Aww, well you poor little dear; those children get a LIFETIME SENTENCE! And STOP calling this man a PASTOR. He is NOT a man of God by any means. A child of God, but I am pretty sure, as a survivor of child sex abuse myself… God is NOT happy with you pretending to actually preach his word while you were being EVIL when no one else was looking right!?! God was watching;
It’s hard enough today to get folks in church. Why go when the church is no different than the rest of the world?
I went to the church he preached at up until I was 10 years old, this is NOT Christian behavior this man DOES NOT and NEVER embodied the church or anything Christ like. It’s disgusting to think I was a child in his presence when he was actively doing these things. This is why Christians are so hated these days because this is who people associate Christianity with but THESE PEOPLE ARE HELLIONS who do not belong to God and are not Christians. I’m sorry to anyone that has been judged or treated poorly by a “Christian” know that they are not who they say they are and that a true Christ-like Christian will love you for who you are, not judge you, and certainly not do things like this man.