TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that a Middlesex County man was sentenced to state prison today for distributing child pornography on the internet. The charges were the result of an investigation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau and the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit.

Johnny Sims, 64, of North Brunswick, N.J., was sentenced to three years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Benjamin S. Bucca Jr. in Middlesex County.  He pleaded guilty on Aug. 21 to second-degree distribution of child pornography. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. In pleading guilty, Sims admitted that he knowingly used internet file-sharing software to make files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated “shared folder” on his computer. Numerous videos of child pornography, including child rape videos, were found on his computer.

“Those who share child pornography online share in the brutal exploitation of innocent children by promoting and creating a market for these vile materials,” said Attorney General Porrino. “Offenders like Sims directly motivate those who sexually abuse children to create child pornography, and they perpetually re-victimize the children whose images can never be erased from the internet.”

“We want offenders who collect and distribute child pornography online to know that we’re monitoring them,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We have the technology and the will to detect their file-sharing activity, identify them and send them to prison.”

“The videos and images Mr. Sims was collecting and sharing represent some of the most revolting and hideous acts a person can inflict on another, especially an innocent child,” said Colonel Patrick Callahan, Acting Superintendent, New Jersey State Police.  “The law enforcement community is placing these depraved individuals on notice that we are actively working together to uncover their repulsive deeds and bring them to justice.”

Deputy Attorney General Lilianne Daniel prosecuted the case with assistance from Deputy Attorney General Anthony Torntore, who handled the sentencing hearing today for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau.

A detective of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit was investigating individuals using file-sharing software to share child pornography on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network on the internet when he identified a computer that was being used to share child pornography. The detective downloaded two videos of prepubescent girls being raped and molested by adult males from a shared folder at the IP address, which was traced to Sims’ residence in North Brunswick. On June 10, 2016, detectives from the Division of Criminal Justice assisted by the North Brunswick Police Department executed a search warrant at the residence, where they arrested Sims and seized his computer. A forensic examination of the computer revealed more than 20 videos of child pornography, a majority of which were located in a shared folder set up by Sims.

Attorney General Porrino and Director Honig urged anyone with information about the distribution of child pornography on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children online or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force tip line at 888-648-6007.

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