A Sicklerville, New Jersey man at a local hospital voiced concerns about the health and wellbeing of children allegedly living in Middletown Township and is now facing serious charges that he tried to rent children for sex, Middletown Township police say.
Jereme Benyola, 51, was preliminarily arraigned by Judge Charles D. Jonas last week, on six felony counts; two counts of criminal attempt – involuntary deviate sexual intercourse w/child, one count each of criminal attempt – indecent assault person less than 13 years of age, criminal attempt – corruption of minors- defendant age 18 or above, child pornography, and criminal use of communication facility.
According to Middletown Township detectives, last month a call was placed by a supervising social worker at Capital Health Regional Center in Trenton, NJ to [police. The social worker explained a patient in the hospital was concerned for the health and welfare of children residing on Veterans Hwy. The patient said he was sent explicit photos of young children on a gay dating app by an unknown male. According to the caller, the patient entered his passcode on his phone and showed the explicit images to the social worker. He said he was supposed to meet the children, ranging in age from two to nine years old. He also gave the usernames of the unknown male on the Telegram and Cruising (a gay dating site) apps.
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Middletown Twp. detectives responded to Capital Health Regional Center to meet with the supervising social worker. Upon their arrival, Trenton NJ police secured the patient’s phone and with the patient’s consent and passcode, Middletown Twp. detectives, due to exigent circumstances that children were possibly being sexually abused in Middletown Twp., reviewed the phone hoping to find a location of the probable sexual abuse, alleged in the affidavit.
Detectives found, upon review, sexually graphic chats from June 2 and 3rd on the Cruising app between Benyola and an unknown male. The phone’s review also yielded multiple child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and a vast amount of conversation about children sexual abuse on the two apps. The phone was taken into custody and a search warrant was requested. A Cellebrite download on the phone was also conducted, police said.
Once the download was completed, Middletown Twp. detectives said, they were able to review the Cruising app conversations between the patient and the unknown male. The phone also showed the conversations overlapped and the two men continued to talk on both apps at the same time.
Some conversations showed the patient asking for images of the unknown male’s body and also of children he could meet and location to meet, the probable cause alleges.
Benyola traveled to the Middletown Twp area on June 21st but was unsure of the actual location of the residence. He messaged the unknown male and kept reaching out to try to get a specific address number. The other male replied hours later, asking Benyola if he was still in the area, to which Benyola replied he was almost in Philadelphia. Talk of money exchanging hands took place with Benyola initiating the money conversation by saying he would be willing to pay at least $1000, according to the criminal complaint, to meet the children.
Through the month of June, additional graphic conversations took place prior to Benyola’s travel to Middletown Twp., detectives wrote in court paperwork.
On July 17, detectives interviewed Benyola. During the conversation, Benyola named the person who purported to have available children as (*SC*). He told police he was provided with a wrong address. Benyola also said, when he went to the wrong address, he spoke to an older man and asked if there was a single man with four children, two boys and two girls. Benyola was told to leave the property based on these inquires, according to the criminal complaint.
During the interview with the detectives, Benyola admitted he offered money up to $3,000 a day to be with the kids. He also told the detectives that the address given to him was incorrect and did not exist as he looked it up before traveling. He was also asked how many files, videos, or photos of child pornography or of CSAM nature would be on his phone, he said only the ones sent to him by (*SC*). Benyola then remembered a photo he took of a child under the age of 10 at an urinal with his pants down, detectives said.
Benyola is scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Daniel Baranoski for a preliminary hearing on August 14, according to online court records. He has no attorney of record listed as of publication time and is currently in Bucks County Correctional Facility in lieu of 10 percent of $250,000.00 bail.
Editor’s Notes
1: Cellebrite is a digital forensics and surveillance firm headquartered in Israel and owned by Sun Corporation, a Japanese computer manufacturer.
2: Due to the sensitive nature of these crimes and the detailed graphic and vulgar conversations, some details were omitted from this story.
3: *S.C.* are the initials used by Lower Bucks Source in the above story to conceal the identity of an alleged potential second conspirator. Lower Bucks Source, prior to publication of this story, ran court records to review arrests and warrants. Lower Bucks Source found no criminal information on the alleged second man of any sex offenses related to children,
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