NEW EGYPT, NJ – A New Egypt man, Richard Knight, 40 is heading to prison for five years after pleading guilty to charges lodged against him by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Court reports detailed Knight’s use of Google Meets to upload and share lewd images of children.
According to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer, the investigation, which began in December 2020, resulted from numerous referrals from the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
“The Task Force detected that a user of the program Google Meets was uploading images of child pornography to the internet,” Billhimer said. “An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit identified a residence in New Egypt as the source of the uploaded images of child pornography.”
On June 9, 2021, Detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit, United States Homeland Security Investigations, and Plumsted Township Police Department, executed a court-authorized search warrant on Knight’s residence in New Egypt. As a result, Detectives seized two cell phones from the residence.
“Further investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit revealed that Knight’s cell phone contained more than 1,000 images but less than 100,000 images of child pornograph,” the agency said. “The investigation also revealed that Knight distributed child pornography using Google Meets and other social media platforms.”
Knight was subsequently arrested at his place of employment in Browns Mills on June 9, 2021; he has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since that date.