Youth minister/teacher pleads guilty to child pornography charges

Robert Dale Barkman, 67, of Atlanta, pled guilty to two counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography and was sentenced on Monday as part of a plea agreement. 5th Judicial District Judge Bill Miller sentenced Barkman to 10 years for each charge which will be served, consecutively.

Barkman was arrested on Aug. 8, 2019 on fifteen felony level offenses relating to child pornography. He was indicted by a grand jury on Jul. 31, 2019 for five counts of promotion of child pornography, three counts of attempted promotion of child pornography, five counts of possession of child pornography, and two counts of tampering with evidence.

Barkman has been out on a $1,025,000.00 bond since last summer. Special conditions of his bond included wearing a GPS leg monitor and no contact with the victim, nor the victim’s family, nor any children under 18 years of age. Barkman has been restricted from going within 1000 feet of a school or any place where children congregate and to Cass and Bowie counties.

The terms of the bond were later amended to allow Barkman supervised contact with blood relatives, only, who are under 18 years of age. None of the allegations involved blood relatives.

The investigation was led by the Cass County Criminal District Attorney’s office which began in early June 2019 after suspicious and inappropriate images of members of Barkman’s youth group were located on his work computer at a local church where he served as youth leader and secretary. The computer was taken to the cyber-crime laboratory within the District Attorney’s office for processing. Hundreds of images of child pornography which were created by Barkman were contained on the device.

The discovery of these images resulted in a search warrant being issued for Barkman’s home where additional computers and electronic devices were recovered by police.

The search warrant was executed by the District Attorney’s Office with assistance from the Cass County Sheriff ’s Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol Division, and the Atlanta Police Department. Upon forensic examination by the District Attorney’s Cyber Crime Lab, hundreds more images of child pornography were located. According to Investigators, it appeared that Barkman had been creating and holding child pornography since the early 2000s.

Barkman was taken into custody after sentencing and placed on the witness stand to receive victim-impact statements.

The mother of one victim described the impact of his betrayal on their family as Barkman looked away.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you.” The father of another victim read, “From all appearances you were a good trustworthy man. Pillar of the community. A most fantastic con.”

Another victim read, “You’ve broken me in a way I cannot describe. You scared us with stories of hell and brimstone and fire. You are literally the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met.”

Barkman was a long-term resident of Cass County and a retired teacher who taught at the Atlanta Middle School from 1977 through 2005.