Source: United States Department of Justice News
TRENTON, N.J. – An Ocean County, New Jersey, man today admitted receiving images of child sexual abuse and inducing a minor to send him sexually explicit images and engage in sexually explicit conduct over an online messaging service, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced.
David M. Frew, 41, of Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp to an information charging him with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of online enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual conduct.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
In June 2017, Frew used an online messaging service to communicate with a minor victim. At Frew’s request, the victim sent Frew sexually explicit images.
In 2008, Frew was convicted of three counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a computer in Pennsylvania after sending sexually explicit photos or videos to investigators in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit, who were posing as minors online. Also in 2008, Frew was convicted in New Jersey of endangering the welfare of children due to his possession of child pornography. As a result of his prior convictions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Frew was a registered sex offender at the time of his conduct charged in the information.
Because Frew is a previously convicted sex offender, the charge of receipt of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a statutory maximum potential penalty of 40 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. The charge of online enticement carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a statutory maximum potential penalty of life in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 23, 2022.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in Atlantic City, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina in Newark; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Technical Crime Unit; the RCMP National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre; the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer; and the Little Egg Harbor Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Hawkins, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander E. Ramey of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.