NJ Man Sentenced 14 Years for Promoting Child Sexual Abuse Material on Dark Web

Declan Golden, 39, engaged with a Tor-based website to trade exploitative images of minors, federal investigators say

A Middletown Township resident has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via a hidden dark web network, according to a January 7, 2026, announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Declan Golden, 39, pleaded guilty in May 2025 to one count of promoting material containing child pornography involving a prepubescent minor. The plea followed a multi-year federal investigation led by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit (CEOU) and supported by the Middletown Police Department.

Between October 18, 2020, and January 20, 2023, Golden accessed a website hosted on the Tor network that encouraged users to post and exchange child sexual abuse content. According to court documents, Golden created numerous posts promoting voyeurism and child sexual exploitation, encouraged others to share illicit material with him, and distributed links to content depicting prepubescent children in sexually explicit conduct.

A subsequent search of Golden’s devices revealed numerous image and video files classified as CSAM. During an interview with federal investigators, Golden admitted he had been viewing such material since 2014.

The case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Fell and Trial Attorney Anglica Carrasco of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. The initiative coordinates federal, state, and local resources to locate and prosecute offenders and rescue victims of online child abuse.

Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy of the FBI Newark Division’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force announced the sentencing.

More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at justice.gov/psc.