Manchester Man Admits Sharing Child Porn From His Computer: State AG

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Manchester Township man who authorities say shared more than a hundred child pornography videos with others online has pleaded guilty in the case, the state attorney general said Wednesday.

Bruce Davis, 55, of Whiting, pleaded guilty to second-degree distribution of child pornography before Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter in Ocean County, a news release from Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said.

Davis was arrested in 2016 along with 39 other people in "Operation Statewide,” a child pornography sweep by the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Porrino said. Davis was arrested Aug. 15, 2016, when state police executed a search warrant at his home and seized several devices, including a laptop computer, authorities said. Davis was actively using the laptop to download child pornography from the file-sharing network when detectives arrived, they said.

A forensic exam of the laptop revealed more than 100 files of child pornography, including more than 25 files that were in a shared folder available for other network users to download, authorities said.

Davis admitted that he knowingly used file-sharing software to make multiple files of child pornography 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 nearly 100 suspected videos and images of child pornography from shared folders at two computer IP addresses that were traced to Davis, Porrino's office said.

“Bruce Davis was a purveyor of more than a hundred videos of abuse, cruelty, and sexual assault of innocent child victims,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “I commend our detectives from the Digital Technology Investigations Unit for their diligent efforts during this investigation, which will put Davis behind bars.”

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Davis be sentenced to five years in state prison, including 2½ years of parole ineligibility, authorities said. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 11.

Operation Statewide was a multi-agency child pornography sweep coordinated by the New Jersey State Police, as lead agency for the New Jersey ICAC Task Force, which includes the U.S. Homeland Security investigators and numerous state, county and local law enforcement agencies.

During the operation, investigators linked all of the defendants to alleged use of the Internet to download and distribute child pornography. Peer to Peer, or P2P, file sharing networks play a major role in the distribution of child pornography. 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 child pornography that the defendants allegedly offered from their computers on P2P networks, tracing the files to their origin locations.

The file-sharing networks used by offenders to distribute child pornography operate in the same manner as websites used for privately sharing music or movies. Those in possession of the illegal images can make them available on computers that they control for others to download. Because many of these videos and photos of child pornography keep recirculating, they result in the perpetual re-victimization of the children who were sexually assaulted or abused to produce them.

Authorities urge anyone with information about distribution of child pornography 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.

Bruce Davis photo via N.J. Attorney General's Office