A NEW JERSEY woman admitted
to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl she was allegedly babysitting and
putting a video of the assault on the Internet.
Jennifer Mahoney, 33, of
Manalapan pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sexual exploitation of a
child.
She faces between 15 and 30
years in prison when she is sentenced Aug. 22, and will have to pay restitution
to the victim. She had been charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a
child.
As part of the plea, Mahoney
agreed 30 years is the appropriate sentence, although the judge will have the
final say. She would be under supervised release for anywhere between five
years and life after her sentence is completed. She also agreed not to appeal.
Mahoney has been in custody
since December after prosecutors said three pornographic videos showing
assaults on the child were found on the computer of Robert Ramos Jr. of Austin,
Texas.
Ramos was charged with
possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors. Prosecutors
in Texas say he set up seven fake Facebook accounts to solicit teenage girls to
send him nude photos and videos of themselves engaged in sex acts.
Mahoney admitted to sexually
assaulting the girl and streaming the assault live over a video chat service on
the Internet. She also admitted to abusing the girl on another occasion,
recording the abuse on a camera phone and emailing the video to at least one
other person. Finally, Mahoney admitted to viewing other videos of child sexual
abuse streamed to her using a video chat service.
"This horrible crime is
a stark example of how harmful child pornography is, and how its young victims
bear not just the physical and emotional scars of violent sexual assault, but
lifelong trauma as others repeatedly watch," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman
said in a statement. "Those like Mahoney, who create and feed the market,
perpetuate unimaginable suffering for the children they abuse." (AP)
No comments:
Post a Comment