David Joseph Godfrey, 40. of Plumstead, and originally from Southbury, Connecticut. (Credit: Warrington Police)
A Southbury, Connecticut man living in Plumstead Township, Bucks County has been charged with felony counts of possession of child pornography, disseminating photos or films of child sex acts, and criminal use of a communication device for sharing child sexual abuse material via BitTorrent.
Police allege David Joseph Godfrey, 40, of the 5800 block of Swamp Road, in the Fountainville section of the township, committed the crimes in August 2024. An investigation led authorities to serve a search warrant on his house and property on Jan. 17, according to Warrington Township Police.
Godfrey posted 10% of $25,000 cash bail on Feb. 19, according to court records.
On Aug. 8, 2024, at 3 a.m., while conducting an undercover investigation in to the online sharing of CSAM via BitTorrent software, Warrington detectives located a computer and its associated IP address using software labeled libTorrent 1.2.2.0, police said. No files were downloaded, police said.
The connection to the computer by investigators took place between Aug. 8 at 3 a.m. and 1:20 p.m., police said. Investigators later determined that the user of this computer system configured his BitTorrent client software to "seed" files, according to authorities.
The investigative software utilized by investigators only conducts single-source downloads, meaning all of the files downloaded were directly downloaded from the suspect device and only from the suspect device.
Between June 16, 2024 and Nov. 5, 2024, law enforcement investigative computers connected with the suspect computer using the discovered IP Address, which geolocated to Plumstead Township, police said.
These connections resulted in the transmission of more than 400 files that contain CSAM from Godfrey’s computer to investigators' computers on multiple occasions, authorities allege.
On Jan. 17, a search warrant was conducted at Godfrey’s residence and several cell phones were seized, analyzed, and one was found to contain CSAM, police said.
An investigation revealed that the phone accessed a file containing CSAM 57 times between Jan. 4, 2024 and Jan. 17, 2025.
An arrest warrant was filed for Godfrey, who turned himself into Warrington Police on Feb. 12.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 3 at 9 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Stacy Wertman.
The Warrington Township Police Department was assisted by the Plumstead Township Police Department, Bucks County Detectives, Warwick Township Police Department, Bensalem Township Police Department, Richland Township Police Department, Perkasie Borough Police Department, and Hilltown Township Police Department.
Godfrey was wanted nine years ago by the PIckens County, Georgia Sheriff's Office for aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and false imprisonment.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
