A man accused of soliciting children to send him sexually explicit images over Snapchat was arrested at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Thursday, federal prosecutors said.
Scott Cunha, 24, is believed to have met up with one of the children he solicited by offering money in exchange for engaging in sexual acts in person, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts, who said he was being charged with recruiting one child, a 15-year-old, to produce and send him sexually explicit images.
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Cunha appeared in court Thursday. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to his arrest.
Federal authorities urged anyone who believes Cunha abused them to call 617-748-3274.
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Cunha was a swim coach with the town of Brookline until 2022, a representative told NBC10 Boston. And the town released a statement acknowledging that Cunha was a part-time employee of the town from September 2019 to July 2022, but added there was no evidence as of Thursday afternoon "that the circumstances of this case are related to his employment."
"We understand this news may be concerning to our community, and our thoughts are especially with those who have been harmed. As this is an ongoing, federally led investigation, we must refer further inquiries on this specific case to the FBI," the statement 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.
Cunha solicited children aged 10-16 in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan and Missouri over Snapchat starting as recently as 2022, prosecutors said.
The FBI's investigation into Cunha is ongoing, according to a criminal complaint filed in court, with at least 12 children allegedly victimized.
The complaint describes in graphic detail extensive conversations between Cunha and some of the alleged victims over months. Cunha's requests for sexual poses as outlined in the document are specific and insistent, and he discusses the clothes he buys as benefiting him, since he gets to see the girls in them. He allegedly described the girl from Connecticut as his "sugar baby."
In May 2022, Cunha allegedly picked up a girl from a Massachusetts K-8 school she attended via a rideshare car and met up with her at a mall. The girl later told FBI agents that he tried to kiss her and touch her chest in a store's changing room while she was trying on shirts, leading her to "walk laps" in the public part of the mall.
Cunha was ordered held until his next hearing on Wednesday. The charge of producing child pornography that he faces carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, and a maximum of a life sentence.
