A Tennessee church deacon was arrested Wednesday and charged with nine counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after his wife found photos and videos on his phone of a teenage babysitter using the toilet and shower and changing clothes in their bathroom.
According to WTVC, Christopher Thomas Collins, 42, was removed from his position as a deacon at Abba’s House in Hixson after his arrest.
An arrest affidavit says that Collins asked his wife to hold his phone while he was undergoing a medical procedure, and she looked at his phone for evidence of suspected infidelity. What she found were explicit images of their former babysitter, a 15-year-old family acquaintance.
She said she first deleted the files, which appeared to have been recorded on cameras hidden in the home’s downstairs bathroom, but then took screenshots from the phone’s “recently deleted” folder. Then she sought guidance from her church, Abba’s House, where staff members urged her to contact police.
The woman told police she confronted Collins about the cameras, and he told her he had installed the cameras to look for rats, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
“She further reported that her husband stated he had forgotten the cameras were recording and claimed he hid the files from her to avoid jealousy,” the arrest report said.
Police quickly took Collins into custody, fearing that evidence could be destroyed, and seized his cell phone, WTVC said. He later gave them permission to search the phone and his home.
At the home, they found small cameras and an older cell phone and obtained SD cards from them. One camera was near the water heater in the bathroom, focused on the shower and toilet.
Collins told police that he knew about the camers and used a mobile app to view images from them, saying that he had seen a nude image and kept it for a while before deleting it.
Police conducted a forensic examination of Collins’ phone and found nine video files recorded on hidden cameras in the bathroom. They showed a girl entering and exiting the shower, using the toilet and changing clothes. They were all time-stamped for last year.
The affidavit said the videos were taken without the girl’s knowledge and in a place she had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
A spokesperson for Abba’s House said Collins lost his deacon title when he was arrested.
“Through the course of a marriage counseling session, Chris Collins’ wife revealed that she had found videos on her husband’s phone of a minor,” the church said in a statement. “We immediately reported it to the police and they are handling the situation. We are caring for his wife and kids during this tragic time. Chris Collins had been a member of the church for four years and served as a deacon. He has been removed from that role.”
Collins is being held on a $450,000 bond, the Time Free Press reported.
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[Featured image: Christopher Thomas Collins/Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office]