Charlie McKenna
masslive.com
(TNS)
A 74-year-old man was arrested on board a JetBlue flight to Boston after prosecutors say another passenger saw him looking at “disturbing” photos and videos of prepubescent children, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said.
s, of Dartmouth, is charged with possession of child pornography, disseminating photographs of sexual or intimate parts of a child and paying for sexual conduct with a child under 18.
He was arraigned on those charges in the East Boston division of Boston Municipal Court, where Judge Debra DelVecchio ordered him held on $10,000 bail with the condition that he be subject to home confinement and GPS monitoring if he is released.
At around 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Massachusetts State Police learned a passenger on an inbound JetBlue flight from Nashville told the flight crew that another passenger was looking at disturbing photos and having “sickening” conversations over text message, according to Hayden’s office.
According to prosecutors, the witness said Cohen began his behavior before the flight took off and spent most of the flight on his phone. The passenger saw Cohen looking at multiple photos and videos of girls ranging from toddlers to 10-year-olds and 11-year-olds, Hayden’s office said.
Prosecutors say the passenger saw Cohen having a text message conversation on WhatsApp where he asked how old a girl was and was told she was four. He later asked “how young is she” and was told “‘she’s five dear, she’s all you need,” the witness reported, according to Hayden’s office. Cohen asked how much it would cost to have sex with the girl, according to the statement.
A member of the flight crew also saw photos on Cohen’s phone, according to prosecutors. One of the photos showed a clothed girl around 10 years old with pigtails while the other was of another girl, who was a little older, naked from the waist up, Hayden’s office said.
State Police troopers met the plane at the airport, where they spoke to Cohen, who gave investigators the passcode to open his phone, according to the statement.
On Cohen’s phone, prosecutors say they found photos of underage girls in sheer lingerie, including a photo of a naked underage girl. Prosecutors also say a photo of a prepubescent girl performing a sex act on a man was found on the phone, to which Cohen sent a message saying “I love her.”
Investigators also found messages with videos and photos of sex acts between men and underage girls, according to Hayden’s office. Prosecutors say they found a message found on Cohen’s phone where he asked about having sex with a 3-year-old at his condo for a fee.
“To call these allegations disturbing is a vast understatement. Sexual exploitation of any kind inflicts lifelong scars, and the harm increases exponentially when the victims are children. I thank this passenger for alerting the flight crew and I’m grateful for the crew’s swift action in notifying authorities,” Hayden said.
Cohen will return to court on Aug. 16 for a probable cause hearing.
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