Signage is displayed at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., on Monday, April 20, 2020. College financial aid offices are bracing for a spike in appeals from students finding that the aid packages they were offered for next year are no longer enough after the coronavirus pandemic cost their parents jobs or income.
A former Northeastern University admissions counselor pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
Beau Christopher Benson, of Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, pleaded guilty to receiving child sexual abuse material obtained via Zoom chat rooms, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Benson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 8. He was arrested in November 2023.
Benson took part in Zoom video chat rooms to share and view child sexual abuse material in April of last year, prosecutors said, and recorded his participation in the chat rooms and saved the recordings to his social media account.
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The recordings, said prosecutors, featured child sexual abuse material and conversations between Benson and others about the abusive images. About 15 video files were saved in his Dropbox. They showed children who appeared to be about 2 to 4 years old, prosecutors said.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
Benson faces a minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
