WESTFIELD — An 85-year-old Westfield resident who admitted to owning elicit materials depicting child abuse has been given probation after pleading guilty in state Criminal Court earlier this month.

William Maher, of Topping Hill Road, was arrested by the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Unit in May of 2023 and charged with Possession of Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Material (CSAEM) in the third degree.

Such convictions in the state of New Jersey can result in state prison sentence of between three and five years and a maximum fine of $15,000. According to information provided through the New Jersey Commission to Review Sentencing, the severity of the sentence can be significantly impacted by specific details of the offense, such as the quantity of material involved and whether the defendant is a first-time offender. A third-degree offense is defined by the state as one in which the accused was found to be in the possession of “less than 1,000 items that depict the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child.”

While the detail’s of Maher’s arrest have not been made public, a representative from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG) told The Leader that he was sentenced to “three years of noncustodial probation because of his advanced age” by Union Vicinage Superior Court Judge Stacey Boretz last week.

In New Jersey, “non-custodial probation” is a sentence that allows a person to avoid jail or prison time by serving their probation in the community rather than in custody.

Maher will not be required to register as a sex offender due to the nature of his offense, theAG’s office said, but he will be required to maintain contact with a probation officer throughout the term of his three-year sentence.

The Westfield Police Department advises that individuals who wish to report a case of child endangerment should call the New Jersey State Police Computer Crimes Task Force Hotline at 1-(888) 648-6007.

Those who want to report an instance of child endangerment utilizing a web reporting system, or if they are unsure as to the location of the child, are asked to utilize the CyberTipline Reporting System sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at www.ncmec.org.

The NCMEC acts as a clearinghouse for information received from various sources and distributes it to law enforcement. As the lead department for the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for the State of New Jersey, the New Jersey State Police receives all cyber tips linked to New Jersey.