A LaFayette, Ga., man who worked as a community youth mentor has been charged with molesting two children and possessing thousands of child pornography pictures.

John Crawford Stanfield, 68, remains jailed in Walker County. His bond was set at $250,000 during a court hearing Thursday.

A federal task force targeting crimes against children arrested Mr. Stanfield at his West Reed Road home on March 11.

Nathan Lee, a Dalton, Ga., detective and task force member, said investigators found about 5,000 images of pornography stored on an external hard drive when they searched Mr. Stanfield’s home.

“Most of it (was) child pornography,” Detective Lee said.

The detective said the pornography led investigators to two juveniles who reported being molested. Their ages and genders were not released.

At least one of the alleged victims is believed to have had contact with Mr. Stanfield while he worked as a youth mentor, Detective Lee said.

“It’s not something that recently happened, that is going on now,” Detective Lee said. “But he (Mr. Stanfield) has been associated with community programs.”

Mr. Stanfield is retired from the military and also served on a juvenile court board that oversees placement of foster children, officials said.

“He didn’t have any contact with children in that setting,” said Herbert “Buzz” Franklin, district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Circuit.

The federal task force that arrested Mr. Stanfield is a new team of officers from around North Georgia. The group is focusing on tracking suspects who transmit child pornography over the Internet.

Detective Lee said, “There is a big demand for these types of case because it takes a lot of research to work on them.”