WASHINGTON—A Manalapan, New Jersey woman
pleaded guilty today to producing child pornography by sexually abusing a
5-year-old girl on more than one occasion and streaming footage of a sexual
assault over the Internet, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the
Justice Department’s Criminal Division and New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J.
Fishman announced.
Jennifer Mahoney, 33, pleaded guilty to
one count of sexual exploitation of a child. She entered her guilty plea in
Trenton, New Jersey federal court before U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper.
“Ms. Mahoney sexually abused a
5-year-old girl and streamed footage of this abuse to others over the
Internet,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Now that she has pleaded
guilty to these reprehensible crimes, she faces a minimum of 15 years in
prison. No prison sentence can repair the damage she has caused, or restore the
innocence of the child she abused. But, she and other child predators should
know this: we in law enforcement will use every measure available to us to
prevent and deter child exploitation and to punish men or women who still
succeed in committing the kind of horrific crimes to which Ms. Mahoney has now
confessed.”
“Today, Jennifer Mahoney admitted that
she sexually abused a 5-year old girl entrusted to her care and then shared
recordings of that abuse over the Internet,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman. “This
horrible crime is a stark example of how harmful ‘child pornography’ is and how
its young victims bear not just the physical and emotional scars of violent
sexual assault, but lifelong trauma as others repeatedly watch. Those like
Mahoney, who create and feed the market, perpetuate unimaginable suffering for
the children they abuse.”
According to court documents, Mahoney
admitted she sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl and streamed the assault live
over the Internet via Skype, a video chat service. Mahoney also admitted that
on another occasion last year, she abused the girl, recorded the abuse on her
iPhone, and e-mailed the video to at least one other person. Additionally,
Mahoney admitted to viewing other videos of child sexual abuse streamed to her
using Skype.
Special agents of the FBI and other law
enforcement personnel executed a search warrant at Mahoney’s home in Manalapan
on December 13, 2011. Law enforcement had previously seized a computer during a
search of a Texas man’s home. Subsequent to both searches, law enforcement
recovered from the Texas man’s computer three videos of Mahoney having sexual
contact with a child.
Two of the videos were of the video chat
session, in which Mahoney is shown molesting the child while laughing and
talking to someone, apparently the party on the other end of the chat session.
The third video depicts Mahoney sexually abusing the child in a bathtub while
filming it with her phone.
The charge of sexual exploitation of
children carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum
potential penalty of 30 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is
currently set for August 22, 2012. In the interim, Mahoney will remain in state
custody on related charges.
The case was investigated by the New
Jersey FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
This case was brought as part of Project
Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child
sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of
Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Project
Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate,
apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to
identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood,
please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The government is represented by
Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Clabby of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal
Division in Trenton and CEOS Trial Attorney Keith A. Becker of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division.
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