Sentenced For Deviant Downloads
A Woodhaven man who admitted to having a cache of child pornography on his personal computer was ordered last Thursday, Jan. 16, to serve up to three years behind bars, prosecutors stated.
Robert Edele, 31, of Forest Parkway in Woodhaven-a tutor with a New York State elementary school teaching certificate-received the sentence from Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt after pleading guilty last September to a charge of promoting a sexual performance by a child.
In entering the guilty plea, Edele agreed to surrender his teaching license and register as a sex offender upon release from prison, law enforcement sources said.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Edele “had more than 100 disturbing videos and over 1,770 images of children under the age of 12 depicted in a sexual manner” on his desktop computer, which he had downloaded and shared through an online network.
Reportedly, Edele utilized a “peer-to-peer network,” which allows participants to access each other’s computers remotely and share files. Access can be restricted to files which “a computer’s user chooses to make available,” it was noted.
Based on information obtained during an investigation by the NYPD Vice Enforcement Division, police executed a court-authorized search at Edele’s apartment on Oct. 15, 2012 and seized his desktop computer. An examination of the device found the explicit images and videos of underage boys and girls.
“My office is committed to protecting children from sexual predators-especially those who attempt to sexually exploit children through the use of online services and the Internet,” Brown said in a statement last Friday, Jan. 17.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Kateri A. Gasper of the DA’s Computer Crimes Unit, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Robert D. Alexander, chief of the Computer Crimes Unit; and Anthony M. Communiello and Oscar W. Ruiz, the respective chief and deputy chief of the DA’s Special Proceedings Bureau.
