Crime & Safety

Former RU Instructor Pleads Guilty To Child Porn Distribution

Gavin Swiatek, 49, of Hillsborough, faces five years in prison for his role in sharing child pornography files over the internet.

A former Rutgers University instructor has pleaded guilty to using a computer in his office at the university to share child pornography videos over the internet.

According to a press release from the office of Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, Gavin Swiatek, 49, a former biochemistry instructor on Cook Campus at Rutgers, pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of distributing child pornography before Superior Court Judge James F. Mulvihill in Middlesex County.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to five years in state prison, and will be permanently barred from public employment.

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Through his guilty plea, Swiatek admitted using file sharing technology to make available for downloading multiple child pornography files from a folder on his university computer.

Swiatek was arrested on Jan. 10 at his home in Hillsborough by State Police officers, and had his university computer seized, as well as a home laptop and home digital media, according to the release.

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He was charged second-degree distribution of child pornography and fourth-degree possession of child pornography.

He is to be sentenced on Feb. 4, according to the release.

"Not only did this defendant contribute to the cruel exploitation of children by distributing child pornography, he did it using a university computer that was provided to him as an instructor," Chiesa said, in a prepared statement. "He betrayed the university's trust, as well as any measure of decency."

When asked for comment, Rutgers University spokesman E.J. Miranda referred to a statement released by the university in January at the time of Swiatek's arrest.

"Rutgers University has cooperated and continues to cooperate fully with the investigation by the New Jersey State Police. In addition to actions by law enforcement, the university has a longstanding computing policy that prohibits employees from “uploading, downloading, distributing or possessing child pornography," the statement read. "The university has relieved the employee in question of his teaching responsibilities and prohibited the employee from returning to campus. The university is reviewing additional appropriate actions – up to and including termination"

Swiatek resigned from his instructor job in March, Miranda said.

The investigation was handled by Det. Paul Sciortino of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and Deputy Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe of the Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis & Technology Unit. The Rutgers University Police Department and Rutgers Office of Information Technology provided assistance, according to the release.

Anyone with information about the distribution of child pornography or possible sexual abuse of children through the internet is asked to call the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 1-888-648-6007.


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