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Ocean County Prosecutor, Bradley D. Billhimer announced on Monday that a registered sex offender who previously worked as a substitute teacher in Hopatcong was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the distribution of child pornography.
According to the Hopatcong Patch, 65-year-old Lawrence Fascia of Manchester Township was sentenced last Thursday by Superior Court Judge Michael T. Collins. Fascia was sentenced five years of parole ineligibility, along with the 10-year sentence in jail.
Fascia is registered as a Tier II sex offender in the New Jersey State Police sex offender database. Back in 2003, he was convicted of two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in Sussex County, where he accessed victims through the internet.
"The prosecutor's office said those convictions were for distribution of child pornography and for filming/photographing a child/reproduction of child pornography," said Billhimer. This resulted in his mandatory 10-year sentence.
Fascia had been a substitute teacher in various schools such as those in Mount Olive, Randolph, Montville, Roxbury and Hopatcong. In addition to teaching, he was an on-call bus driver.
Back in July of 2016, Fascia was also arrested after "thousands of images of child pornography were found on his computer." Following this 2016 incident, an investigation began by the Ocean County High Tech Crimes Unit.
The FBI received a tip from a technical support person about the images found on his computer, after Fascia had contacted for assistance with computer issues. Thousands of images of prepubescent children in sexual acts were found, along with emails of traded child pornography.