Investigator: Child porn 'the murdering of innocence'

CAMDEN – As an investigator with the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, Sgt. Tom DiNunzio has seen many bodies torn by violence and robbed of life.

But those grim experiences hardly compare with the emotional challenge of his current position leading a new High Tech Crimes unit.

“Every time I open a file, I cringe,” said the 13-year veteran, who spends much of his time probing child pornography.

“When you see the pictures, you’re looking at a crime scene,” he said. “It’s the murdering of innocence.”

The new unit made its latest arrest Friday, charging a Pine Hill man with child-pornography offenses. Joseph G. McCann Jr., 55, was the 19th suspect to be charged this year by the HTC unit.

“We’re really upping our game,” said Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Ira Slovin, section chief for the unit.

The Camden County office previously helped outside agencies, including the New Jersey State Police, with child-porn investigations. The new unit actively identifies people suspected of obtaining child porn through online file-sharing programs, identifying criminal images through distinctive “fingerprints” found on every digital picture.

The unit also tackles an array of other crimes, with investigators who unlock the secrets of cellphones and laptops and who use software programs to improve the clarity of surveillance images.

One notable tool is a lead-lined box that holds a cellphone under examination. The box prevents suspects from remotely deleting incriminating information on the phone.

Often, success comes from a flawed assumption by many criminals, DiNunzio said.

“People believe once something’s deleted, it’s gone forever,” he said. “It isn’t.”

In contrast, a clear path often leads to people viewing child pornography, but the suspects don’t seem to consider the consequences, DiNunzio said.

“The addiction just takes over,” he observed.

Once investigators identify child pornography moving through a file-sharing program, it’s easy to obtain the location of the computer, to stake out the home and identify possible users and to prepare for a raid. The challenge can come in “putting somebody at the computer” and obtaining a confession, DiNunzio said.

People who use file-sharing programs can be charged with both possession of child pornography and the more serious charge of distributing it, Slovin said.

“They can be husbands, sons, grandfathers,” DiNunzio said of child-porn suspects.

“They keep it from everybody. Even once we get out there, they’re denying it.”

The new unit earlier this year began responding to tips about potential child-porn use, including those from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said Andy McNeil, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

“Right now, we’re inundated with child pornography,” said DiNunzio, who has formerly worked in major crimes, domestic violence, narcotics and internal affairs.

Similar units already operate in Burlington and Gloucester counties.

In Gloucester County, high-tech detectives since 2004 have probed crimes “ranging from cyber threats or harassment to child pornography possession or distribution,” said Sgt. Steven LaPorta.

Training is also provided to local police on such topics as computer crime investigations and the seizure and preservation of electronic evidence, LaPorta said.

A 3-year-old unit in Burlington County conducted 42 investigations last year, including three incidents “of predators willing to travel and meet with underage females that were being portrayed by a detective acting in an undercover capacity,” said spokesman Joel Bewley. All three were arrested and charged.

In one case, Bewley said, an investigation “led to the identity of a young child being sexually exploited by her biological mother. The child was removed from the situation ... thus rescuing a live victim from additional abuse.”

One challenge to the high-tech work is simply dealing with horrific images of children being sexually abused, allowed Camden County Prosecutor’s Detective Chris Robinson.

“We have counseling that’s made available,” Robinson said. “There is a burnout rate.”

And he said, investigators find encouragement in the hope that they’re helping those unknown victims.

“We’re trying to nip it in the bud,” Robinson said. “Maybe we’ll be able to save a child down the road.”

Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com