Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that a Gloucester County man who had over 76,000 videos and images of explicit images of minors on his computer devices was sentenced today to state prison. He was among 40 men arrested last year in “Operation Statewide,” a explicit images of minors sweep conducted by the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes the New Jersey State Police, Division of Criminal Justice, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and numerous state, county and local law enforcement agencies.
According to authorities, John H. DeFay Jr., 48, of Pitman, who was employed as an IT manager for a private business at the time of his arrest, was sentenced today to seven years in state prison, including 2 ½ years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Robert P. Becker in Gloucester County. DeFay pleaded guilty on Sept. 18 to a second-degree charge of distribution of explicit images of minors. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.
In pleading guilty, DeFay admitted that he knowingly used file-sharing software to make multiple files of explicit images of minors readily available for any other user to download from a “shared folder” on his computer. While monitoring a peer-to-peer file-sharing network popular with sex offenders, a detective of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit (DTIU) downloaded over a dozen videos and images of explicit images of minors from a shared folder at a computer IP address that was subsequently traced to DeFay.
Police arrested DeFay on July 13, 2016, when members of the DTIU and State Police TEAMS South Unit executed a search warrant at his home and seized computer equipment, including a desktop computer with an attached hard drive. Forensic examinations of the devices revealed more than 76,000 videos and images of explicit images of minors, constituting one of the largest collections of explicit images of minors ever seized by law enforcement in New Jersey.
“It’s heartbreaking to think of the many thousands of young children who were raped and sexually abused to produce the explicit images of minors that DeFay had accumulated in his vast collection,” said Attorney General Porrino. “This case illustrates the huge scope of this problem and the way that collectors like DeFay, who constantly search the internet for new explicit images of minors, drive the sexual exploitation of children and the production of these horrific materials. We will never rest in our efforts to bring these predators to justice.”
“New Jersey’s ICAC Task Force is an excellent example of how law enforcement agencies at all levels are working collaboratively to identify and track down those who share this filth on the internet,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “Our regular operations targeting these offenders have snared many hands-on child predators, highlighting the fact that viewing explicit images of minors is part of a continuum of deviant behavior that often leads to sexual assaults on children.”
“Deviants like DeFay, who possessed and shared one of largest collections of explicit images of minors in state history, create the demand for new pornography, turning innocent children into victims of rape and abuse,” said Colonel Patrick Callahan, Acting Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “I am proud of New Jersey’s ICAC Task Force, which is led by the New Jersey State Police, for not only removing these abhorrent files from the internet, but for putting those who share them behind bars.”
Operation Statewide was a multi-agency explicit images of minors sweep coordinated by the New Jersey State Police, as lead agency for the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which led to arrests of 40 men last year, including defendants in every county of New Jersey. During the operation, investigators linked all of the defendants to alleged use of the internet to download and distribute explicit images of minors. Peer to Peer, or P2P, file-sharing networks play a major role in the distribution of explicit images of minors. There is a large library of images and videos known to law enforcement, and these electronic files can be traced in various ways on the internet. Detectives downloaded explicit images of minors that the defendants allegedly offered from their computers on P2P networks, tracing the files to their origin locations.
Attorney General Porrino and Director Honig urged anyone with information about distribution of explicit images of minors on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.