NEWARK, N.J. – A music teacher and singer/songwriter who performed for children at synagogues, Jewish community centers, camps and conventions nationwide was sentenced today to 82 months in prison for receiving images of child sexual abuse, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Eric S. Komar, 47, of Hillsborough, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini to an information charging him with one count of receiving child pornography. Judge Martini imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Between April 2017 and September 2017, Komar used an Internet based peer-to-peer file-sharing program to obtain images and videos that included images of prepubescent children being sexually abused as well as sadistic and masochistic images. Komar also admitted to law enforcement that he had become sexually aroused by a child in his presence on more than one occasion.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Martini sentenced Komar to 10 years of supervised release and ordered that he register as a sex offender.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie; members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson and County Chief of Detectives John W. Fodor; the Hillsborough Township Police Department, under the direction of Chief Darren Powell, and the N.J. Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Danielle Alfonzo Walsman and Leticia Vandehaar of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: John H. Yauch Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark