A Brookline man allegedly promised a 15-year-old girl cash and a shopping spree in return for providing sexually explicit images of herself during an extended pressure campaign, officials said Thursday.
Scott H. Cunha, 24, was arrested by FBI agents at his home Thursday on a charge of sexual exploitation of children, according to the US Attorney’s office.
Dating back to 2022, the FBI believes Cunha enticed at least a dozen children, some as young as 10, to take nude images and videos of themselves and send them to him over Snapchat, according to an affidavit filed in court.
Cunha appeared Thursday in US District Court in Boston, where he was held pending a detention hearing next Wednesday, according to court records.
Between April and July of 2023, Cunha was in regular contact with the 15-year-old, who was living in Connecticut, according to the affidavit.
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During lengthy phone conversations, text messages, and on Snapchat, Cunha repeatedly pressured her to produce sexually explicit images, according to the affidavit.
In one message to her, Cunha wrote that “you cant get all teary-eyed when I get real with you[.] I’m giving you money to do as you’re told[.] that’s the point of paying you[.], you answer with yes daddy,” according to the affidavit.
Cunha’s demands began to wear on the child, who said her mother was under investigation by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, according to the affidavit.
“‘I’m doing this bc I need the money … this is making my anxiety worse but I need the money,‘" she wrote, adding that she did not want to meet with him in person. Cunha had offered the child money in exchange for sex, according to the affidavit.
“‘I don’t want to [meet] … I’m stressed and I’m sad… u can’t force me,‘“ the child wrote to Cunha, according to the affidavit.
In a conversation on July 10, 2023, the girl demanded that Cunha pay her the money he had promised because she needed it for “therapy for my mental health” and clothes, according to the affidavit.
Cunha allegedly used similar tactics against a 13-year-old girl from Massachusetts who, after years of contact with him, agreed to meet in person, according to the affidavit.
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Cunha sent a rideshare car to her school to take her to the mall, where they met. While she was trying on clothes in a store, Cunha allegedly entered the changing room, where he groped and tried to kiss her, according to the affidavit.
The girl told agents she walked around the mall to prevent Cunha from getting close to her again. He later asked her if next time they met “they could get a hotel and if he should get one bed or two,” the affidavit said.
Cunha used similar tactics to obtain sexually explicit images from two adolescent girls in Indiana, the affidavit said. He also allegedly used Snapchat to try to entice children in New Jersey, Michigan, Missouri, and Alabama to send him explicit images and videos, prosecutors said. The children were ages 10 to 16, they said.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Cunha’s father said his son was a victim of abuse and neglect when his family adopted him through the state’s Department of Children and Families.
“We love our son,” Glenn A. Cunha said on behalf of his spouse. “He has struggled with learning disabilities, significant learning disabilities, and mental health issues since we adopted him. And we have sought treatment in multiple forums over the years.”
Cunha, a former Massachusetts inspector general, declined further comment.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.