Last year, authorities found a massive stash of hardcore child pornography photos and videos on Daniel Allen, Jr.’s laptop, including images of children being sexually assaulted. Yesterday, the 23-year-old from Voorhees pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography online. The case has led to other arrests across the country.

Daniel Allen Jr.
Daniel Allen Jr. (NJ Office of The Attorney General)
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According to acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman, Allen also posted more than a thousand pictures he took of two young girls on a foreign website and asked site users to Photoshop the girls into child pornography. Six other men have been arrested as a result of the ongoing investigation.

“Demand for child pornography directly drives the sexual abuse of children,” says Hoffman. “That is why these cases are such a priority for us, and why the refrain that simply viewing child pornography online is a victimless crime is as offensive as it is misguided. The users who share these perverse materials motivate the suppliers who produce them, and their use is often part of a continuum of deviant behavior that can lead to sexual assaults against children, as we have seen with some of the leads produced in this case.”

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Allen be sentenced to seven years in state prison and he’ll have to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. He is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 13.

“When investigators learned that Allen was exploiting two young girls and exposing them to harm on the Internet, they moved swiftly to arrest him and protect the victims,” says Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “Meanwhile, we continued to pursue leads related to the foreign website Allen was using and pedophiles who communicated with him. We want anyone who shares child pornography on the Internet to know that we have the technology to detect them, and when we do, we’ll prosecute them to the full extent of the law.”

Leads generated by this investigation resulted in arrests of the following six persons to date according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General:

  1. Todd Gregory Nichols, 43, of Williamstown was arrested in January 2013 by the Division of Criminal Justice and HSI.  He allegedly sent images of child pornography to Allen’s e-mail account.  He faces state charges of possession and distribution of child pornography.  Nichols allegedly communicated to Allen that he photographs young girls in his neighborhood.
  1. James Goelz, 76, of Wheatland, Wyoming, was arrested in October 2012 by the Oregon Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty to trading child pornography with Allen Jr. and to traveling to Oregon for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor.  Goelz is registered as a sex offender in the State of Wyoming as a result of his plea.
  1. Gary Mitchell Luxenberg, 69, of Garland, Texas, a registered sex offender, was arrested on Oct. 2, 2012 by Garland Police and HSI.  Luxenberg was visiting the foreign-based website at the time of his arrest. Child pornography was found on his computer.  He pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges and is awaiting sentencing.
  1. Christopher James Vesper, 33, of Bracey, Virginia, was arrested in April 2013 by HSI and the Virginia State Police.  He allegedly traded child pornography with Allen.
  1. John Scarano, 42, of Royersford, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Nov. 28, 2012 by the Montgomery County, Pa., District Attorney’s Office and HSI-Philadelphia. He is charged with manufacturing child pornography with the images of the two pre-teenage girls provided by Allen, as well as possession and distribution of child pornography.
  1. Tyler Andrew Smith, 23, of Ponce Inlet, Florida, was arrested in May 2013 by the Daytona Beach, Fla., Police Department and HSI. Smith allegedly traded child pornography with Allen.

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