| TRENTON - Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a former Rutgers University instructor has pleaded guilty to using a computer in his university office to share videos of child pornography over the Internet.
Gavin Swiatek, 49, a former biochemistry instructor on the Rutgers University Cook Campus in New Brunswick, pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of distributing child pornography before Superior Court Judge James F. Mulvihill in Middlesex County. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to five years in state prison. He will execute a consent order to be permanently barred from public employment. Swiatek was charged as a result of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and the Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis & Technology Unit. Deputy Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe took the guilty plea. Sentencing for Swiatek is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2013 before Superior Court Judge Bradley J. Ferencz.
In pleading guilty, Swiatek admitted that he used peer-to-peer file sharing technology to make multiple files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated "shared folder" on his university computer. The state investigation revealed that he shared numerous files containing child pornography, mostly videos.
"Not only did this defendant contribute to the cruel exploitation of children by distributing child pornography, he did it using a university computer that was provided to him as an instructor," said Attorney General Chiesa. "He betrayed the university's trust, as well as any measure of decency."
"Prison is the appropriate sentence for those who distribute child pornography," said Director Stephen J. Taylor of the Division of Criminal Justice. "We have the technology to detect this type of file-sharing activity on the Internet, and we will continue to work aggressively with the New Jersey State Police to track down such offenders and put them behind bars."
“The penalties prescribed for those guilty of distributing child pornography will never be enough to heal the injury they inflict on our society. We will continue to investigate and expose every illegal act related to this reprehensible crime,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.
Swiatek was arrested on Jan. 10, 2012, at his home in Hillsborough by members of the New Jersey State Police. Rutgers University seized Swiatek's university computer from his office. Investigators also executed a search warrant and seized a laptop computer and digital media from Swiatek and from his home.
The investigation was led by Detective Paul Sciortino of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and Deputy Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe of the Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis & Technology Unit. Attorney General Chiesa thanked the Rutgers University Police Department and Rutgers Office of Information Technology for their valuable assistance.
If you have information about the distribution of child pornography on the Internet or suspect improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the Internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children, please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 1-888-648-6007.
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