Jersey Shore man arrested for collecting and distributing child porn
A Jersey Shore man is facing a plethora of charges after federal investigators learned that he was allegedly distributing, receiving and possessing child porn images and videos and have placed him under arrest.
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Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced Wednesday that 24-year old Jared Faircloth of Cream Ridge is charged via a criminal complaint with one count of receiving and distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
He appeared in court on Wednesday afternoon digitally in Trenton Federal Court and was later released on $100,000 unsecured bond.
His alleged lewd and heinous activity occurred between September 2020 and July of this year when federal investigators said he received and distributed the child sexual abuse images through the BitTorrent Network, which is a publicly available online peer-to-peer file-sharing network of linked computers.
Federal law enforcement officers found the IP address where the images and videos were being shared and then used special investigative software to access the BitTorrent Network and downloaded video files containing images of child sexual abuse from a device or devices ultimately tracing it to Faircloth.
They searched his residence on July 22 and found a device that contained more than 2,800 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, 30 files were downloaded from the IP address linked to Faircloth.
Investigators also located the BitTorrent software.
If convicted of knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography Faircloth faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison, and a statutory maximum fine equal to $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss, Honig said.
For knowingly possessing child pornography he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, and a similar statutory maximum fine.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Super Pitts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.
Defense counsel: Benjamin West Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Trenton.