Man Posed as Girl in Online Chats With Teen: Prosecutors

A New Jersey man who authorities said posed as a girl in video chats with a South American teenager will face a child pornography charge Wednesday in Trenton.
 
Thirty-one-year-old Fredy Arbito, of Hightstown, N.J. is due to make an initial appearance on a charge of one count of child pornography possession.
 
Beginning in July 2011, prosecutors say, Arbito posed online as a 14-year-old girl named Angely in Colombia and befriended a teenage girl in Ecuador.
 
Arbito and the girl engaged in video chats where he had the teen appear nude, prosecutors said.
 
The victim described the defendant to officials as a young girl with curly light brown hair, according to the complaint, but authorities would not say how Arbito appeared in the video chats.
 
During several chats, Arbito took still photos from the videos and then began threatening the girl in emails one year later, according to a complaint.
 
Arbito told the girl he would send the images to her friends on Facebook if she didn't continue to engage in sexually explicit conduct online, the complaint said.
 
The girl wouldn't reply to his emails, and he sent four images to one of her friends on Facebook, authorities said. When authorities in Ecuador had Arbito's Internet Protocol address traced, they found it was registered to a user in Hightstown and alerted officials there, authorities said.
 
The IP address was also traced to username "eDonkey2000" that was found on a file-sharing network known for trading child porn, authorities said.
 
Arbito was arrested in Panama and returned to the U.S. last month. A search warrant was conducted at his home in January, and an arrest warrant followed.
 
A lawyer for Arbito had no comment before the hearing.