Former NJ Pastor Pleads Guilty To Sexually Exploiting Boys Online: Officials

PALMYRA, NJ — A former Burlington County youth pastor has pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting underage boys on social media, officials said Thursday.

Sean Higgins, 32, made a plea agreement with the county prosecutor's office and admitted to four counts of endangering the welfare of children. Three of these counts are first-degree crimes, and one is a third-degree crime.

Each count represents a separate victim, officials said.

Higgins pleaded guilty Tuesday and faces 27 years in New Jersey State Prison, Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said. Judge Christopher J. Garrenger scheduled Higgins' sentencing for March 30.

Officials said Higgins committed the crimes in 2020, when he was the youth pastor and music leader at Harbor Baptist Church in Hainesport and was a teacher at the adjacent K-12 school. None of the victims were members of the church or students at the school.

Related article — Pastor Used Nude Pics To Blackmail 13 Boys In Burlington Co.: Official

Higgins has been in the Burlington County Jail since October 2020, when he was one of 15 people arrested as part of a massive crackdown on child pornography amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the BCPO.

Officials say they began investigating him after a juvenile in Berks County, Pa. contacted Snapchat about "an unknown female," who really was Higgins, threatening to expose his nude photographs. Another juvenile male in Alabama told law enforcement he had communicated with Higgins, the prosecutor's office said.

After his 2020 arrest, officials executed a search warrant at Higgins' house and the church and found multiple electronic devices, according to the prosecutor.

Higgins adopted the persona of a teenage girl called Julie Miller and then used Snapchat and Instagram to start talking with underage boys, the prosecutor said.

After a bond was forged between "Julie Miller" and each of the underage boys, Higgins "would suggest that they trade photos. Higgins would then send pictures" of an unidentified teenage girl, " the prosecutor's office said.

Higgins often received nude pictures of the teenage boys in return, according to the prosecutor.

Higgins would take a screenshot of the teenage boys' friends who were listed on their phones, "send that screenshot back to the victim and threaten to send the nude photos he had just received to the list of the victim’s friends unless the victim did exactly what Higgins demanded," the prosecutor's office stated.

"In most of the cases that were investigated, Higgins then demanded that his victims go into the bathroom at their residence and place the phone on the floor, or at an angle looking up, and would instruct the victims to masturbate or perform sexual acts on themselves. Higgins would record what was transpiring," the prosecutor's office continued.

The teenage boys often begged Higgins to let them stop this behavior, but he would threaten to send the recordings he was making to the teenage boys' friends if they ceased following his commands, according to the prosecutor.

Patch's Janel Miller contributed to this report.