MOUNT LAUREL — A police officer was on duty when he illegally hacked about 5,000 student email accounts tied to a New Jersey college as well as several women’s social media accounts to steal and share their nude photos, authorities said.
The now-former Mount Laurel officer, Ayron Taylor, 25, of Moorestown, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of computer theft and official misconduct, according to a Sept. 11 news release from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
“This was an extremely nightmarish invasion of privacy for these victims,” Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said in a statement. “It was made even more egregious by the fact that the person who was terrorizing these young ladies was a law enforcement officer.”
Taylor’s attorney information was not immediately available.
All of the women who had their nude images leaked by Taylor had a student email account with Rowan College at Burlington County, an investigation revealed, according to authorities.
In September 2022, law enforcement started investigating when a woman’s Snapchat and Facebook accounts were hacked, officials said.
The woman told police that an “unknown person” accessed her accounts, then sent her nude images to her friends on Snapchat and Facebook, according to officials.
Her photos were also posted to her Facebook wall, authorities said.
“The charges reflect the fact that Taylor engaged in illegal computer activity from his own personal devices while on duty as a patrol officer,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Taylor resigned from the Mount Laurel Police Department after officials said he was charged and suspended from the agency. He joined the department in October 2021.
Mount Laurel is about a 15-mile drive east from Philadelphia.
By JULIA MARNIN/McClatchy News
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
