Woman Pleads Guilty to Molesting Child and Streaming the Assault

Manalapan resident, Jennifer Mahoney, plead guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper in Trenton Federal Court today to the production of child pornography through the sexual exploitation of a 5-year-old girl, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

Mahoney, 33, admitted to abusing the child on more than one occasion and streaming the footage of the sexual abuse on the internet. She plead guilty to an Information charging her with one count of the sexual exploitation of a child.

“Today, Jennifer Mahoney admitted that she sexually abused a five-year old girl entrusted to her care and then shared recordings of that abuse over the Internet,” U.S. Attorney Fishman said. “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. Those like Mahoney, who create and feed the market, perpetuate unimaginable suffering for the children they abuse.”

Mahoney admitted to sexually assaulting the 5-year-old girl and then streaming the assault live of the internet through the video chat service Skype. She also admitted in court that she had previously abused the child on a separate occasion, recorded the abuse on her iPhone and then e-mailed the video of the abuse to at least one other person, court documents reveal.

Mahoney has also admitted to watching other videos of child sexual abuse via Skype, the court documents stated.

“Now that she has pleaded guilty to these reprehensible crimes, she faces a minimum of 15 years in prison," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. "No prison sentence can repair the damage she has caused, or restore the innocence of the child she abused. But, she and other child predators should know this: we in law enforcement will use every measure available to us to prevent and deter child exploitation, and to punish men or women who still succeed in committing the kind of horrific crimes to which Ms. Mahoney has now confessed.”

. Prior to executing the search warrant, the FBI had seized a computer during a search of a Texas man's home where three videos made by Mahoney were uncovered where Mahoney was having sexual contact with a young girl. Of the three videos, two showed Mahoney molesting the child during a live video chat session while laughing and talking to someone and the third video shows Mahoney sexually abusing the girl in a bathtub while filming the abuse on her phone.

A sexual exploitation of a child charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30  years in prison along with a $250,000 fine. Mahoney's sentencing is currenlty set for Aug. 22, 2012. While Mahoney waits for her sentencing date she will remain in state custody on related charges.