Old Bridge Man Posed As Teen Online, Threatened To Send Sexual Pictures Of Teen Girl To Her School, Feds Say

OLD BRIDGE, NJ — An Old Bridge man enticed two underage teenage girls to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and in one of the cases, threatened to leak the photos unless the girl paid him, allege federal prosecutors.

Daniel Berwick, 38, met the girls on the social media app Snapchat. One feature of Snapchat is that messages and photos disappear after being sent.

He started talking to the first teenage girl, who lived in Texas, when she was 14. He portrayed himself as a 17-year-old boy living in New Jersey, said prosecutors.

Over the next three years, the two exchanged many messages, photos and videos of a sexual nature, according to the criminal complaint against him, which was unsealed this week. (Note: The criminal complaint has extremely graphic sexual content.)

However, the girl reported Berwick to Snapchat after he threatened to send the compromising photos to her family and officials at her high school.

Berwick also blackmailed the teen girl, saying she could pay him to not release the photos and videos. Or, she could meet him in person and have sexual intercourse with him, said federal prosecutors.

The teen girl, then 17, said she felt that due to Berwick's threats "her only way out" was to commit suicide, said police. She did not. She eventually reported Berwick on Snapchat and that's when the FBI started investigating.

Berwick then started chatting online with his second victim, a 16-year-old California girl, said prosecutors. He sent that girl money using Venmo, said police.

FBI agents executed a search warrant on Berwick's home in Old Bridge Jan. 21 of this year, and they seized his electronic devices. Law enforcement says they uncovered, among other things, at least 1,000 images of child pornography, including prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, sexual abuse or exploitation of an infant or toddler, and images portraying sadistic or masochistic conduct.

Berwick was arrested and charged with two counts of producing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He made his first appearance in Trenton federal court Tuesday and was held in jail.