A Jamaica man could spend up to three years behind bars after admitting in court this week that he downloaded more than 1,500 images and videos of children being sexually assaulted, prosecutors announced.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified him as Andre Y. Smith, 22, a licensed daycare provider and worked as a security guard at a Manhattan after-school program. He was arrested on June 15 of this year following a New York State Police investigation.
Between Feb. 6 and June 1 of this year, law enforcement sources said, Smith downloaded the child porn through a peer-to-peer network that the state police monitored. The images and video showed children, some as young as two years of age, being “raped, fondled and sexually abused in the most heinous ways,” Brown said.
Police executed a court-authorized search warrant at Smith’s home on June 15 and recovered his laptop computer, which had an IP address associated with the downloaded child pornography. A forensic examination of the computer as well as two cell phones and a thumb drive found more than 1,500 pictures and videos of juveniles being sexually assaulted.
“The public should be aware that videos and pictures of youngster being touched, penetrated and forced to perform sex acts are for all intents and purposes crime scene images,” Brown said in a statement. “These children are crime victims and will have to live with the abuse they endured for the rest of their lives.”
Brown said that Smith pleaded guilty on Nov. 27 to a count of possessing a sexual performance by a child. Judge Gia Morris indicated that she would order him to serve one to three years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 16; Smith will also need to register as a sex offender.
