Pediatrician who just started his fellowship in Boston arrested for child pornography – NBC Boston

A pediatrician in Boston was arrested on suspicion of distributing child sexual abuse materials.

Federal prosecutors said Friday that Christopher Sheerer, 35, who began training in cardiac anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School this month, was taken into custody after a search of his Boston home Thursday night. He faces charges each of distribution and possession of child pornography.

Sheerer was previously a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, where the federal investigation began, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts. He told investigators at the time of his arrest that he had been in Boston for about three weeks.

Using an encrypted messaging app, Sheerer allegedly joined a group “that required users to upload nude images of children they knew.” Prosecutors say he did this to gain access.

He allegedly claimed to be the father of a 5-year-old girl in the group and uploaded nude photos of a young girl holding a card with the group’s name on it. Investigators found that Sheerer and his ex-wife have a daughter who was born in 2018.

Photographs showing Sheerer’s former home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, match the bathroom floor seen in the pictures, investigators said.

A selfie showing Sheerer in surgical scrubs and wearing a Johns Hopkins lanyard surfaced on a Google account found by investigators in Maryland during their investigation into the group.

When authorities searched his home on Wednesday, they found several chats on Sheerer’s phone, “some of which allegedly contained images and videos that appeared to be child pornography and featured children as young as infants,” the office of Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said.

A forensic investigation revealed that Sheerer allegedly distributed three images and 15 videos depicting child sexual abuse in a one-on-one chat on July 1, the day he began his fellowship in Boston, court documents show.

If convicted, Sheerer faces five to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count against him.

It was not immediately clear whether Sheerer had a lawyer who could comment on the allegations against him.