Georgia youth minister admits to horrific child abuse that carries 40-year prison term

A former Georgia youth minister has pleaded guilty to child molestation and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Austin Wray Perkins was arrested in March 2022 as part of a sting targeting child sexual abuse materials, and Floyd County police accused him of victimizing a minor who was living at his home and then creating explicit videos of the abuse, reported the Rome News-Tribune.

The 26-year-old Perkins entered a non-negotiated plea to one count of felony child molestation and one count of felony sexual exploitation of children, both of which carry a potential 20-year prison term. Each charge comes with a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.

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Perkins took the child, who had no family or other support, into his home, molested him and coached him about how to act in sexually explicit videos.

At the time, he was serving as youth minister at Grace Fellowship Baptist Church.

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Perkins will be sentenced once his psychosexual evaluation, which the judge said had been completed, is available to the court.

Federal, state and local law enforcement arrested six other individuals at the time Perkins was taken into custody.