newjerseynewsroom.com

A Cumberland County man was sentenced to four years in state prison Friday for distributing child pornography on the Internet.

Charles Corathers, 53, of Vineland, was sentenced by state Superior Court Judge Benjamin C. Telsey in Bridgeton, state Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor said.

Corathers pleaded guilty on May 7 to charges of second-degree distribution of child pornography and fourth-degree possession of child pornography. The charges were contained in a Dec. 23 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice.

Corathers was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and is prohibited from having any contact with children or using the Internet for the duration of the sentence.

In pleading guilty, Corathers admitted that between April and August 2009, he knowingly used Internet file sharing software to make multiple files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated "shared folder" on his computer.

The State Police Digital Technology Investigation Unit conducted the investigation. It began with a referral from the Camden County prosecutor's office, which, during an online operation in April 2009, discovered videos of child pornography available for downloading on Corather's personal computer.

The State Police subsequently connected to Corather's computer using peer-to-peer software and downloaded additional files of child pornography from his shared folder. Troopers executed a search warrant on Aug. 14, 2009 and seized Corather's computer. An examination of the computer at the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory revealed numerous files containing child pornography.

Deputy Attorney General Asha Vaghela prosecuted the case.

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM