Florida Minister Arrested for Child Pornography

A pastor at Osprey Church of Christ in Florida, Charles Anderws, 66, is also a registered sex offender and as of Tuesday, is in police custody and charged with 500 counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of mailing to meet sex offender registration requirements.

In 2006 Andrews was convicted of second degree sexual abuse in Alabama and has been required to register as a sex offender since.

According to a press release from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, Andrews was taken into custody Tuesday night after a search warrant was executed on his residence.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had provided a tip to the Sheriff's indicating that the IP address belonging to Andrews had been used to download approximately 70 images of child pornography.

While executing the search warrant, law enforcement learned that Andrews actually possessed "more than 500 images to his computer including at least 50 depicting sexual battery of a child."  Those images had been acquired through the use of two e-mail addresses and a social media account that had not been reported to law enforcement in accordance to the registration requirements as a sexual offender.

According to ABC, his bond is set at more than $5,000,000.  No court date appears to have been set as the Sheriff's office said the investigation is continuing.