UPDATE, 1:18pm EDT: Weirbach has sent a statement to MetalSucks in response to this article. You can read that here.

Original Post:

Inquisition frontman Jason Weirbach, a.k.a. “Dagon,” plead guilty to child pornography charges in 2009, according to official documents from the Superior Court of Washington for Snohomish County.

The documents, which are a matter of public record, state that NCMEC (the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) became aware of an account uploading sexually explicit photographs of “young females in their early teens or pre-teens” to the photo-sharing website Photobucket in November of 2006. After tracing the uploader’s I.P. address and determining its jurisdiction, NCMEC contacted the Everett Police Department, who subsequently launched an investigation.

Although the user name for the Photobucket account suggested its owner was a woman, that investigation eventually led police to Weirbach. In late 2007, Detective Karen Kowalchyk visited Weirbach and his wife at their home. While Weirbach was out of the room, his wife admitted that they were having marital problems, that Weirbach liked for her to dress up as a young girl when they had sex, and that she was concerned he might be looking at child pornography online; while his wife was out of the room, Weirbach admitted that the Photobucket images were his, and that he had pretended to be a lesbian while obtaining them online. Weirbach claimed that he had only ever looked at the images “out of curiosity.”

Consequently, Weirbach’s computer was subpoenaed, and he was ordered to turn in the machine. According to the report, investigators found that “efforts had been made to sanitize/clean out” as many as 2,000 files after Detective Kowalchyk had left his home. Some of these files were recoverable, and proved to be photos of Weirbach and his wife, Inquisition, and more child pornography, involving both young girls and boys. Enough of the latter category existed to fill four “CDs/DVD’s” [sic] of “digital and/or video images.”

Weirbach was charged with Possession of Depictions of a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct in December of 2008; in June of 2009, his attorney was able to strike a bargain with prosecutors, whereupon Weirbach plead guilty to Unlawful Display of Sexually Explicit Material and Obstructing a Law Enforcement Officer. In exchange, the prosecutor recommended thirty days in jail with credit for time already served, roughly $1,000 in fines, and two years of probation, which included limited access to the Internet as well as counseling.

A sex offender treatment report filed in September of 2011 noted that although his marriage continued to be strained, Weirbach “appears sincere in his efforts not to return to his deviant lifestyle” and that his “assessment of risk to the community is considered ‘Low.’”

Inquistion’s last two albums, Obscure Verses for the Multiverse (2013) and Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith (2016), were released on Season of Mist. Yesterday morning, MetalSucks contacted the label for comment; in the afternoon, we were told that the label no longer works with Inquisition. This morning, the label officially released a statement declaring “Season of Mist are no longer working with Inquisition. There will be no further statement.”

Weirbach, who was charged with Fourth Degree Assault and Third Degree Malicious Mischief in February of 2006, has been at the center of controversy in the past as the result of accusations that he is involved in Nazism and/or white supremacy. These allegations stem primarily from another Weirbach project, 88MM, the name of which denotes both a Nazi gun and the phrase “Heil Hitler.” 88MM’s track “14 Showerheads, 1 Gas Tight Door” appeared on a compilation entitled Declaration of Anti-Semetic Terror [sic], which included an image of Weirbach posing with a swastika flag.

Additionally, in a post on social media, a former white supremacist detailed an encounter with Inquisition during which, he alleged, the band, spurred on by his hate-group-themed tattoos, preached the benefits of Nazi ideology.

Weirbach has denied these claims.