Manalapan Woman Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Sexually Abusing Girl, Streaming Assault Live Over the Internet

WASHINGTON—A New Jersey woman was sentenced today to serve 30 years in prison for producing child pornography through the sexual exploitation of a 5-year-old girl on more than one occasion and streaming footage of a sexual assault over the Internet, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman.

Jennifer Mahoney, 33, of Manalapan, New Jersey, was sentenced today by Judge Mary L. Cooper in the District of New Jersey. In addition to her prison term, Judge Cooper sentenced Mahoney to lifetime supervised release.

“Jennifer Mahoney will serve 30 years in prison for sexually abusing a young girl and streaming the footage of her crime over the Internet,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “No prison sentence can repair the damage Jennifer Mahoney has done, but today’s sentence is appropriate punishment for such heinous crimes, committed against a defenseless victim. The Justice Department is committed to partnering with its law enforcement partners to prevent, deter, and punish child exploitation.”

“Today’s sentence is a just and fair punishment for a crime that illustrates just how despicable child pornography is,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman. “The victim in this case was a 5-year-old girl that had been entrusted to the defendant’s care. Not only did Mahoney totally betray that trust by subjecting her to multiple sexual assaults, but that little girl’s nightmare will be available for others to watch over and over.”

Mahoney pleaded guilty on May 9, 2012, to a criminal information charging her with one count of the sexual exploitation of a child.

According to court documents, Mahoney admitted she sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl and streamed the assault live over the Internet via a video chat service. Mahoney also admitted that on another occasion last year, she abused the girl, recorded the abuse on her smartphone, and e-mailed the video to at least one other person. Additionally, Mahoney admitted to viewing other videos of child sexual abuse streamed to her using Skype.

Special agents of the FBI and other law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Mahoney’s home in Manalapan on December 13, 2011. Law enforcement had previously seized a computer during a search of a man’s Texas home. Subsequent to both searches, law enforcement recovered from the Texas computer three videos of Mahoney having sexual contact with a child.

Two of the videos were of the video chat session in which Mahoney is shown molesting the child while laughing and talking to someone, apparently the party on the other end of the chat session. The third video depicts Mahoney sexually abusing the child in a bathtub while filming it with her phone.

This case was investigated by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Monmouth County, New Jersey Prosecutor’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Clabby of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and Trial Attorney Keith A. Becker of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS).

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.