March 28, 2019 By Christian Murray
A Long Island City man faces up to seven years in prison for downloading and sharing thousands of images and videos of child sex abuse.
Dodelyn Vertilus, 40, of 29th Street, was charged on a 3,201-count indictment for sharing thousands of images of children as young as three being sexually abused by men. The images were allegedly stored on his home computer, cell phone and other electronic devices between July and October of 2017, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
Vertilus was caught after state police were using specialized software to track down distributors of child pornography and picked up his Internet Protocol address sharing such material. A state investigator was able to make a connection to his IP address on 17 occasions between July and September 2017, where he allegedly downloaded 983 videos and images depicting child sexual abuse.
One filed, according to authorities, was titled “Gold 3yo.”
Police conducted a court authorized search on Oct. 6, 2017 and identified 2,218 files on his home computer and other devices containing child sex abuse.
Vertilus was arraigned today with bail set at $50,000 cash. He has been ordered to return to court on June 27.
Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan described his collection of images as “vile.”
“The photos and videos are in fact crime scene images where youngsters are violated in the most horrific ways,” Ryan said.