Cops: Repeat Offender Solicited Child Porn

David Frew (Archive Photo)

  LITTLE EGG HARBOR – A local man was charged with trying to get a minor to engage in sexual conduct and receiving child pornography, police said.

  David Frew, 41, of Little Egg Harbor allegedly used an online messaging service to communicate with a minor. He requested that the minor send him sexually explicit images.

  This resulted in one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of online enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual conduct, and one count of receipt of child pornography.

  Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

  This is not Frew’s first encounter of this nature, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

  In 2008, he was convicted of three counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a computer in Pennsylvania after sending sexually explicit material to investigators in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit, who were posing online as underage girls, police said. Also in 2008, Frew was convicted in New Jersey of endangering the welfare of children.

  Because Frew is a previously convicted sex offender, the sexual exploitation charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum penalty of 25 years in prison and a statutory maximum potential penalty of 50 years in prison, along with a $250,000 fine, counting one of Frew’s prior convictions; or a mandatory minimum penalty of 35 years in prison and a statutory maximum potential penalty of life in prison, along with a $250,000 fine, counting two or more of Frew’s prior convictions. The charge of online enticement carries a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Because Frew is a previously convicted sex offender, the charge of receipt of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a statutory maximum potential penalty of 40 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.

  The investigation took place in two countries and included representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Atlantic City, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian Michael; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Technical Crime Unit; the RCMP National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre; the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, and the Little Egg Harbor Police Department, under the direction of Chief Richard Buzby Jr.