Brite professor who kept child sex abuse images on his TCU computer is sentenced
The efforts of a Brite Divinity School theology professor to conceal his collection of child sexual abuse material through the use of the dark web could have caused serious damage to TCU’s computer network and should result in a sentence more severe than had he not attempted to hide via hacking tools his interest in illicit images, a federal prosecutor argued on Thursday.
Charles Bellinger, who appeared in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth to be sentenced on a count of possession of child pornography, used a VPN and other methods, although he intended to elude detection by TCU colleagues and students, not law enforcement authorities, his retained defense attorney, James Luster, argued.
Obstruction attempts are often made by people who view child pornography and are not unlike a bank robber’s use of a ski mask to make it less likely his face is seen by a victim or a witness, Luster said.
Bellinger, whom Brite Divinity School fired, was also a librarian. He was arrested in October. The divinity school and TCU are separate institutions but share a campus and some services, including an information technology office.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman sentenced Bellinger to just more than 10 years in prison, at the lowest end of a probation office sentencing guideline range calculation of 121 months to 151 months. The judge denied a defense motion for a prison term sentence lower than the guideline range.
Bellinger, who is 63, told Judge Pittman that he has deep remorse and that he had not had improper contact with children.
“I never want to look at a pornographic image for the rest of my life,” Bellinger said.
Bellinger’s wife and brother observed the hearing from the courtroom gallery.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem said during the hearing that Bellinger had engaged in child pornography offenses for “25-plus years.” It is not clear whether the defendant was using TCU-controlled devices to possess images of sexual abuse during that period, or whether he used personal devices for that purpose for a portion of that time.
A Brite Divinity School spokesperson did not respond in October to a reporter’s question that asked on what date Brite hired Bellinger.
In determining the sentence, Judge Pittman should, beyond the children whose images Bellinger possessed, take into account other victims, including a “university whose reputation has been impacted,” Saleem argued.
Bellinger in January pleaded guilty to a count of possessing child pornography.
Judge Pittman on Thursday also ordered a supervised release term of 10 years and that Bellinger pay to victims restitution of $6,000.
Deputy U.S. marshals took Bellinger into custody following the hearing.
The federal investigation of the professor began after TCU’s IT staff reported they had detected pornographic images with file names that included “infant” and “toddler,” on Bellinger’s work computer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Bellinger admitted that he stored sexual images of children on his work computer. On a hard drive and an SD card removed from Bellinger’s office, investigators found sexually explicit images of prepubescent minors, prosecutors said.
At a preliminary hearing, a law enforcement officer testified that encrypted devices from a locked safe in Bellinger’s office also were seized, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Bellinger initially was taken into custody after Fort Worth police Internet Crimes Against Children Unit detectives, TCU police officers and Secret Service special agents executed a search warrant at his house in Arlington and at his office on the TCU campus.
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 6:21 PM.
