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Teacher's aide faces child pornography charges

A special education teacher's aide was downloading child pornography onto his computer as state police served a search warrant at his Nicholas Road home Thursday night, according to court records.

Jesse Beckley, 26, admitted to troopers he possessed child pornography. Officers found as many as 250 different files that may be child pornography on his computer, according to an affidavit filed by Trooper Matthew G. Murphy.

Interim School Superintendent Gene Thayer said yesterday that Beckley was an assistant special education teacher, or teacher's aide, at Stapleton School. This was his fourth year.

"We view these charges against Mr. Beckley as serious," he said. "We placed him on administrative leave, but he resigned (yesterday) afternoon."

On Sept. 18, troopers assigned to the Massachusetts Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force logged onto a peer-to-peer network to search for a specific digital video known to contain a child engaged in a sexual activity, the trooper said.

A peer-to-peer network allows people from around the world to log onto a central server and download and upload various computer files.

Once the trooper found the file, he obtained a list of Internet protocol addresses, or IP addresses, which are unique numbers assigned to Internet users.

Murphy said the trooper then tracked one number to a computer in Massachusetts.

"He (the trooper) then made a direct connection with the computer and looked at the list of other files that computer was offering to share," Murphy wrote in his report. "That list had over 250 entries and contained names of multiple files that appeared to be child pornography. Members of the state police confirmed that they recognized at least nine of the files as being child pornography."

The state police then traced the IP address to Beckley's apartment at 83 Nicholas Road, Framingham, and they obtained a search warrant on Thursday.

When the troopers executed the search warrant around 11 p.m., Beckley admitted he used the peer-to-peer network to collect child pornography and share the pornography he had already collected, Murphy said.

"Upon entering the defendant's address, the state police found the defendant's computer on and actively engaging in several downloads of child pornography files (both pictures and videos), as well as actively engaging in one upload (i.e. dissemination) of a child pornography file."

Further investigation revealed Beckley had more than 200 different pornography files on his computer.

The affidavit did not list the ages or sex of the children in the photos and videos, but Murphy said they contained "children visibly under the age of 18 years of age engaged in sexual activity."

Beckley was charged with two counts each of possession of material depicting a child participating in a sex act, possession of child pornography with the intent to disseminate and possession of obscene matter with the intent to disseminate. The charges are felonies. He was also charged with one count each of the dissemination of child pornography and the dissemination of obscene matter.

Prosecutor Michael Rubin asked Judge Paul Healy to set bail at $5,000. He also asked Healy to put Beckley under house arrest, monitored by a GPS ankle bracelet if he made bail. The bracelet allows police to track Beckley's location.

He also wanted Beckley to have no contact with children younger than 16, and to not to use a computer.

Beckley's lawyer, Marc Finkel, argued against the conditions.

"This is an allegation right now," he said. "Pretty much every inch of Framingham is a school area. I don't know how enforceable it will be."

Healy set the recommended conditions.

Beckley posted bail and is due back in court on Nov. 30 for a pretrial conference.

(Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or at nmiller@cnc.com)