NJ woman admits making, streaming child porn

TRENTON, N.J. – A New Jersey woman admitted Wednesday to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl she was allegedly babysitting and putting a video of the assault on the Internet.

Jennifer Mahoney, 33, of Manalapan pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sexual exploitation of a child.

She faces between 15 and 30 years in prison when she is sentenced Aug. 22, and will have to pay restitution to the victim. She had been charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

As part of the plea, Mahoney agreed 30 years is the appropriate sentence, although the judge will have the final say. She would be under supervised release for anywhere between five years and life after her sentence is completed. She also agreed not to appeal.

Mahoney has been in custody since December after prosecutors said three pornographic videos showing assaults on the child were found on the computer of Robert Ramos Jr. of Austin, Texas.

Ramos was charged with possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors. Prosecutors in Texas say he set up seven fake Facebook accounts to solicit teenage girls to send him nude photos and videos of themselves engaged in sex acts.

Mahoney admitted to sexually assaulting the girl and streaming the assault live over a video chat service on the Internet. She also admitted to abusing the girl on another occasion, recording the abuse on a camera phone and emailing the video to at least one other person. Finally, Mahoney admitted to viewing other videos of child sexual abuse streamed to her using a video chat service.

"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," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. "Those like Mahoney, who create and feed the market, perpetuate unimaginable suffering for the children they abuse."