TOMS RIVER – An 18-year-old township man faces charges of distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material following an investigation prompted by a cybertip, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced.
Joseph Roach was charged Oct. 13 after detectives searched his home and examined his cellphone, authorities said.
The investigation began with a referral from the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The task force had received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about someone allegedly sending and receiving child sexual abuse images online.
Investigators with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Squad and Toms River Township Police Department traced an IP address to a township residence and identified Roach as the person allegedly accessing the material, prosecutors said.
Detectives executed a court-authorized search warrant at Roach’s residence Oct. 13. An initial forensic examination of his cellphone allegedly showed that a WhatsApp account associated with him had sent child sexual abuse images to another account. Investigators also found those images on the device, prosecutors said.
Roach was taken into custody and brought to the Ocean County Jail, where he was being held pending a detention hearing, according to the announcement.
The charges are accusations. Roach is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
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