Lawrenceville Man Busted With Over 1,000 Images Of Child Pornography: Feds

Lawrenceville, NJ -- A Lawrenceville man had over 1,000 pictures of children on his laptop when he was arrested on child pornography charges, according to a complaint obtained by Patch Wednesday morning.

Robert Cristello is accused of knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography between Feb. 22 and March 17 of last year. The complaint was filed last week.

A federal investigation into Cristello began in November of 2014, when investigators discovered that an email address that was ultimately traced back to Cristello was being used to share videos and images of child pornography with another email address that was the subject of an investigation, according to the indictment.

The investigation led to the execution of a federal search warrant at Cristello's house on Nov. 6, 2015.

Law enforcement officials seized numerous devices from Cristello's house during the search.

Some of the photos discovered during the search depict children who were unaware they were being photographed in public places, including public parks, school bus stops and street fairs, according to the complaint.

Following the search, Cristello admitted that he set up a email account specifically so that he could send and receive images of child pornography.