Paroled Sex Offender From Ocean County Admits Sharing Child Porn Via WhatsApp

LAKEWOOD, NJ — A convicted sex offender from Lakewood has pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography while he was on parole for sexually assaulting a girl in 2017, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced.

Matthew J. Robles, 32, also pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan on May 15 to failure to register as a Megan's Law offender, for failing to notify police he was working for a business in Brick Township, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Billhimer said an investigation by the Megan's Law unit of the prosecutor's office discovered that Robles had been working at the business — which authorities did not name — without alerting authorities. Megan's Law requires certain offenders to register with local police departments when they move or get a new job.

On July 26, 2022, parole officers conducted a home visit and found images of child pornography on Robles’ cellular phone, the prosecutor's office said. He was arrested on charges of violating his parole conditions and taken to the Ocean County Jail, the prosecutor said.

His electronic devices were seized by law enforcement, and on July 28, 2022, a court-authorized search warrant on them was executed by detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit, the prosecutor said.

That search turned up evidence that Robles had been uploading and sharing images of child pornography on the internet by way of the WhatsApp application, and he was charged with distribution of child pornography in addition to failure to register, Billhimer's office said.

Robles is at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, and has been in state prison since July 26, 2022, as a result of the parole violation. He will remain in state prison, the prosecutor said.

Billhimer said the state will be recommending seven years in prison with five years of parole ineligibility on the child pornography charge, and three years on the failure to register charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. A sentencing date was not announced.