Twenty-five people—including four from Camden County—were arrested in a statewide child pornography sting, New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced Wednesday morning.
The three-month effort, dubbed Operation Ever Vigilant, targeted New Jerseyans who allegedly were making child pornography, including child rape videos, available to others.
Charged from Camden County are: Alfred Bakewell, 64, Sicklerville; Brent Ailiff, 38, West Berlin; Ryan Bronchella, 34, Clementon; and an unnamed 17-year-old male from Cherry Hill.
The four, along with the others arrested statewide, are charged with second-degree distribution of child pornography and fourth-degree possession of child pornography.
“Anyone who views and distributes child pornography—particularly the type of child rape videos targeted in this operation—puts himself in league with the predators who sexually assault children to create these videos,” Chiesa said in a statement. “The children they watch being tortured are violated again by their actions, and these offenders may pose a danger to other children because of their predilections. We will remain ever vigilant to stop this predatory behavior against children.”
The arrests were made last week, and all the defendants had multiple sexually explicit videos of young children, which they had made available to others, Chiesa said.
Those videos and images were passed back and forth among users through emails and by way of file sharing networks, state officials said, and detectives found what Chiesa said were disturbing sexually explicit videos portraying necrophilia and bestiality during the searches.
Ailiff, the West Berlin defendant, allegedly had hundreds of child pornography files, and remains in jail on $100,000 bail.
“Everyone sitting in the seclusion of their darkened homes viewing child rape videos has victimized these innocents by creating the market for this disgusting material,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the State Police, in a statement. “There’s no room for them to say, ‘I haven’t hurt anyone.’”
Arrested in the sting were: