An Atlantic County man was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison for using a file-sharing network to distribute child porn online, authorities said.

Craig C. Covell, 55, of Buena Vista, pleaded guilty on July 11 to a distribution of child pornography and admitted that he used the network to make multiple files of child porn “readily available” for other people to download from a “shared folder” on his computer, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

“By sharing child pornography online, this defendant participated in a criminal network that promotes and perpetuates the brutal sexual exploitation of children,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in the statement. “Our multi-agency efforts to patrol the internet and put these offenders in prison are all about protecting children and ensuring justice for those who have been victimized.”

The New Jersey State Police were monitoring the file sharing network which is “popular with offenders who download and trade child pornography” when they found an IP address that was sharing the files, according to the statement.

Detectives downloaded numerous videos of child porn being shared from the IP address which they then traced to Covell’s home, officials said.

On Oct. 19, the state police executed a search warrant on the home and seized computers and drives they found in the basement, authorities said. Over 100 child porn videos and images were discovered on the devices and police arrested Covell.

Covell will also be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life, the attorney general’s office said.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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