Man Gets 34 Years for Morris Sex Assault, Filming Children In Bathrooms

A Somerset County man was sentenced to prison earlier this week for producing and transporting sexually explicit videos of children, authorities said.

Patrick T. Deck, 54, of Watchung, previously pleaded guilty to an information charging him with two counts of transportation of child pornography. He was sentenced in Newark federal court on Monday to 408 months in prison, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Deck was arrested on Aug. 12, 2012, at the Land of Make Believe amusement park in Hope Township for allegedly filming children, without their or their parents’ knowledge, in the men’s room, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. A search warrant was issued and executed on Deck’s Watchung home the following day, where authorities discovered multiple videos and images containing child sexual abuse on computers and other electronic devices, authorities said.

Additionally, Deck was sentenced on Friday, June 5, in Warren County Superior Court to serve 15 years for charges against him out of Warren County, authorities said.

According to the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office, the defendant was ordered to serve 10 years on two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child (production of child pornography) and five years, with five years parole ineligibility, on a second-degree charge of convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

The two sentences, totaling 15 years in New Jersey State Prison, are to be served concurrently with his 34-year sentence handed down in federal court on Monday, June 1, the prosecutor’s office said.

When initially indicted in Warren County, Deck was accused of sexual assault in Chester.

>> Related story: Man Accused in Chester Sex Assault Indicted

Deck admitted between 1997 and 2010, he transported two minors, beginning when they were approximately 11 years old, to multiple locations across the United States, including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Montana, to film the minors in sexually explicit material, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He reportedly produced the child pornography and then brought the images and videos back to his Somerset County home.

Deck was previously convicted in 1988 in New Jersey Superior Court on two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Authorities said the convictions came from prior incidents where he photographed or filmed minors engaged in prohibited sexual acts.

In addition to 34 years in prison, Deck’s federal court sentence orders him to serve a lifetime of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.