WHITING – A 56-year-old Whiting man was sentenced to five years in state prison today after being arrested during last year’s “Operation Statewide” child pornography sweep.
The sweep, led by the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, rounded up 39 other offenders from every county in the state with the help of the New Jersey State Police, Division of Criminal Justice, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and many other state, county and local law enforcement agencies.
Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter handed down the sentencing to Bruce Davis on October 18 in Ocean County, making him ineligible for parole for two and a half years. Davis had pleaded guilty on June 14 to charges of second-degree distribution of child pornography. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and need parole supervision for the rest of his life.
Davis admitted to using file-sharing software to duplicate child pornography files and making them available for other people to download from a shared folder on his computer. A detective from the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit (DTIU) then located and downloaded the suspected videos and images of child pornography from the shared folders at two computer IP addresses that were traced back to Davis.
Davis was arrested in August 2016 when State Police DTIU detectives executed a search warrant at his home and confiscated several devices, including a laptop, which he was using to download child pornography from the file-sharing network when officers arrived.
A forensic investigation into the laptop exposed over 100 files of child pornography, including more than 25 files ready to be downloaded by other users.
“As Davis has learned, those who promote the cruel exploitation of children by viewing and sharing child pornography online are going to find themselves viewing and sharing the inside of a prison cell,” said Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino. “We’ll continue to crack down on these offenders and the abhorrent materials they traffic through sweeps like Operation Statewide.”
File-sharing networks used by offenders to distribute child pornography work in the same way that other websites share music and movies. Someone who is in the possession of illegal images can copy them and make them available on computers that they control, so that other offenders can download them. This leads to the re-victimization of children who are sexually assaulted or abused, because videos and photos of child pornography are constantly recirculating.
All 40 men arrested during Operation Statewide were allegedly linked to using “Peer to Peer” file-sharing networks in order to distribute child pornography. Law enforcement is aware of a large library of images and videos of child pornography, which can be traced in many ways on the internet, in these cases leading to arrests.
“Offenders like Davis think they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet, but we have the technology to track them down and bring them to justice for their crimes, which perpetually victimize the children involved,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “Our tough child pornography law enables us to put significant distributers of these materials in prison for lengthy terms with mandatory periods of parole ineligibility.”
Attorney General Porrino and Director Honig urge that anyone with information about the distribution of child pornography on the internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children should contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tip Line at 888-648-6007.
