Ocean County man pleads guilty to distributing more than 1,000 child porn images

A New Egypt man found to be distributing thousands of child porn images through Google Meets and other social media platforms has now plead guilty and is facing five-years in prison when sentenced in January.

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer announced Tuesday that 40-year old Richard Knight pled guilty to Distribution of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography and that on January 14, 2022, the State seeking five years with a two year period of parole ineligibility as to the Distribution of Child Pornography charge and five years for the Possession of Child Pornography charge with both running concurrently.

In addition, Prosecutor Billhimer said that Knight will be subject to the terms of Meghan’s Law and Parole Supervision for Life.

His heinous activity was uncovered in December of last year when the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force passed along a tip to the OCPO after learning someone was using Google Mets to upload child porn to the internet.

The OCPO High Tech Crime Unit was then able to trace it to a home in New Egypt and on June 9 of 2021, OCPO Detectives as well as those from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and Plumsted Police executed a search warrant and seized two cell phones.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit took a look into what was on on the cell phones and what they had been used for.

On Knight’s cell phone, detectives said they found "more than 1,000 images but less than 100,000 images of child pornography."

The OCPO then learned Knight used Google Meets and other social media sites to upload the lewd materials.

He was then arrested at his place of employment in Browns Mills and has been in the Ocean County Jail ever since.

Prosecutor Billhimer said that Ocean County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Shanon Chant-Berry is handling the case on behalf of the State.