By Steven H. Foskett Jr. TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
[email protected]
WORCESTER – The mother of a Worcester man facing child pornography charges in New York state has herself been charged with lying to federal agents about what she knew about her son’s past alleged sexual assaults, involving not only a neighbor, but children at her day care business in her home.
Donna Belanger, 49, of 18 Rustic Drive, was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court with making materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or representation to federal agents investigating a child exploitation offense. She posted an unsecured $10,000 bond, and was released, according to federal court records. She is due back in court Jan. 13.
According to federal court records, shortly after being taken into custody in February for allegedly enticing a New York state boy into sending him sexually explicit videos of himself, Brian Belanger admitted to authorities he had sexually assaulted children, both male and female, who attended his mother’s day care.
The office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, in a news release issued Tuesday, said anyone with questions, concerns or information regarding Ms. Belanger’s case should call (617) 748-3274. Federal authorities could not be reached Tuesday to say whether charges had been filed against Mr. Belanger in connection with the alleged assaults.
According to the affidavit, when asked whether she had any knowledge of her son sexually assaulting or inappropriately touching a child, Ms. Belanger initially only volunteered that she shut her day care business down in 2012 after the state Department of Children and Families investigated complaints that Mr. Belanger had inappropriately touched a child at the business.
Ms. Belanger said the allegations against her son were false and she shuttered her day care because she did not want to go through an investigation again.
What she did not initially tell authorities, according to the affidavit, was that in 2005, seven years before the DCF investigation, Mr. Belanger allegedly tied the hands of a 4-year-old neighbor and touched him inappropriately. Ms. Belanger told authorities about the incident in a subsequent interview after being confronted with statements her son had made.
She later told authorities she had forgotten about the incident when she was initially interviewed, according to the affidavit.
In a footnote, the affidavit said Ms. Belanger never informed DCF investigators about the alleged 2005 incident during the 2012 investigation.
Ms. Belanger also told authorities in initial interviews there was never an occasion while she operated a day care that her son was left unsupervised with any of the children in her care.
According to the affidavit, that also conflicted with details Ms. Belanger provided to city police in a later interview. In that interview, she admitted her son would play video games with children upstairs unsupervised.
The person who prompted the 2012 DCF investigation told authorities that when she and other children went upstairs to play, Mr. Belanger would use a belt to tie her up, and would then fondle her. The alleged assaults occurred over several years, according to the affidavit.
“Sometimes this would occur while Brian’s younger brother and the other child from day care were in the room playing video games,” the affidavit said. “Brian would tell them to ‘mind their own business.’ ”
Authorities have interviewed another alleged victim, and also interviewed a former employee who said she was terminated on the same day she went upstairs to check on a small child sleeping a crib in a dark room and found Mr. Belanger in the room, leaning over the crib. It was around 2011, the employee told authorities in the affidavit.
“Brian was ‘startled,’ and backed away from the crib, into a tall CD case, spilling CDs all over the place,” the affidavit said. “That very night, Donna terminated (the employee).”
The employee told authorities that before that day, Ms. Belanger had never relayed any concerns about Brian being left alone with children, and never told her about the 2005 incident.
Mr. Belanger is facing child pornography and enticement charges in U.S. District Court in Albany for allegedly telling a Colonie, New York, 10-year-old he would be killed unless the boy sent him sexually explicit videos of himself. Ms. Belanger said she was aware her son watched pornography as she had come across websites like https://www.tubev.sex/?hl=fr in his browser history however as far as she was aware all the websites were adult pornography websites. This would be correct as there are no child pornography sites on the internet that can be accessed by a normal browser, to find a child pornography website one would have to access the dark web but a certain level of computer know-how is needed to access it let alone navigate through it. It isn’t like normal pornography, like Caty Cole on cam, at all.
The boy complied and sent more than 20 videos to the 21-year-old’s Quinsigamond Community College gmail account in Worcester.
According to federal court records, the boy’s father told police he found numerous sent emails on his son’s iPad containing sexually explicit videos of the boy. The emails were all addressed to an account authorities traced to QCC. The college complied with a subpoena and told investigators the email belonged to Mr. Belanger.
Mr. Belanger told the boy there was a person trying to kill him and the boy could help him if he provided videos of himself that he could give to the person, according to federal court records.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the case against Ms. Belanger was brought in cooperation with Worcester police as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. If convicted, Ms. Belanger could face up to 8 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Phil Barter Worcester Herald lifestyle reporter follow me on TWITTER and GOOGLE+
