A former employee at the world headquarters for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Montgomery County was sentenced to 150 years in prison in Howard County Circuit Court this week for sexually abusing three girls between the ages of 5 and 8.
Joseph Edgar Davis, 40, formerly of the 9400 block of Vollmerhausen Drive in Columbia, also was found guilty of child pornography after lewd images of the girls were found on Davis' work computer at the General Conference of the Seventh-day Aventist Church located in Silver Spring, according to State's Attorney spokesman Wayne Kirwan.
According to the church, Davis, who worked in the church's audio-visual department, was fired on March 5, 2012.
"The General Conference has a zero-tolerance practice as it relates to accessing pornographic websites on computers or other electronic devices," the church said in a statement.
"The Seventh-day Adventist Church views the care and protection of children as a value of utmost importance, and will cooperate with authorities as they investigate any activities that may have been illegal in nature."
Davis, who is listed as a resident of Burtonsville, was sentenced on July 9 by Howard County Circuit Court Judge Richard Bernhardt after pleading guilty in April to three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, one count of second-degree sex offense and nine counts of third-degree sex offense.
According to Kirwan, the case arose from a joint investigation by Howard County Police, Montgomery County Police, the federal government and members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.