A former DeSoto County teacher and pastor will spend 25 years behind bars for child sex crimes.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that Kyle Michael Hilleary, a former PE teacher and minister at Cedar View Baptist Church in Olive Branch, was sentenced on one count of child exploitation following a jury trial.
The 32-year-old was found guilty of coercing a child to send him pornographic images in October 2023. At the time of his arrest, he was removed from his position within the church. Fitch said her team was able to prosecute Hilleary as a result of an undercover operation.
“These crimes rob a child of their innocence and the images can cause a lifetime of trauma, re-victimizing the child over and over again,” the attorney general stated. “And when the perpetrator is someone in a position of authority, they violate a covenant with the parents who entrusted them with their children. We will not tolerate such abuse.”
Hilleary will serve 25 years in prison without the possibility for parole and is also ordered to spend five years on probation and register as a sex offender once released. On top of that, he has to pay $1,000 to the Victims of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation Fund and $1,000 to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund.
Officials remind the public that if anyone has information linked to a child being sexually exploited, they can report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or online.