RAHWAY, N.J. – A Union County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 88 months in prison for distributing and possessing images of child sexual abuse, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Nicholas Pecil, 33, of Rahway, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez in Newark federal court to a superseding indictment charging him with one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Judge Vazquez imposed the sentence by videoconference today.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Pecil used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download and share videos and images of child sexual abuse. In February 2017, law enforcement downloaded 11 videos of child sexual abuse from Pecil’s computer. After executing a search warrant at Pecil’s home in May 2017, agents located more than 1,000 videos and over 6,000 images of child sexual abuse on Pecil’s computers. Pecil admitted that he used the peer-to-peer file-sharing program to make images and videos of child sexual abuse available for others to download from his computer.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Vazquez sentenced Pecil to 15 years of supervised release and ordered him to register as a sex offender.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina in Newark with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Torntore of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Cybercrime Unit.