Content warning: This story contains details of sexual assault and child pornography.
The former Northeastern admissions counselor who pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography last year was sentenced to five years in prison Feb. 27, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Beau Christopher Benson, 36, will also serve five years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release. He received the minimum sentence and was facing up to 20 years in federal prison, The Huntington News previously reported.
Benson was arrested in November 2023 after authorities found approximately 15 video files depicting explicit content of children from 2 to 14 years old in his Dropbox account. He pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography in March 2024 after initially telling police he didn’t know his account contained illicit videos.
According to federal court filings, Benson accepted a plea deal in the case in January 2024, and his offense level was reduced because he “accepted responsibility” for his crimes. Prosecutors asked the judge to impose a sentence of five years and 10 months in prison and five years of supervised release.
Per court order, Benson has lived with his mother in Pennsylvania since he was released on bail in November 2023. He was initially scheduled for sentencing in July 2024, but court orders show he asked to postpone his sentencing thrice due to medical emergencies involving his parents. A motion to postpone his sentencing filed Feb. 17 said Benson wanted his mother, who had recently had a heart attack, to be at the sentencing.
Law enforcement was notified that Benson, who lived in Dorchester at the time, was participating in Zoom video chat rooms used to share and view child pornography in April 2023; he recorded the chat rooms and saved them to his Dropbox account, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Benson was a senior associate director of admissions for international recruitment at Northeastern from October 2007 to July 2023, according to his LinkedIn. He was then promoted the same month to director of global enrollment before being fired by Northeastern upon his arrest.
Boston police executed a search warrant and questioned Benson about child pornography connected to his email account in August 2023. Between that time and his arrest, he visited several high schools in New York and abroad to recruit students to the university, The News previously reported.
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentencing.
