Crime

Foxborough High School teacher arrested on child exploitation charges

Thomas Davis, 41, was arrested without incident in his home on Thursday morning.

Thomas Davis, 41, of Mansfield was arrested on Aug. 26 on child exploitation charges. Screenshot from YouTube Video

August 26, 2021

A teacher at Foxborough High School was arrested Thursday on child exploitation charges.

Thomas Davis, 41, of Mansfield, a special education teacher, was charged with possession and receipt of child pornography. According to charging documents, officers found around 40 images of child pornography, including “images involving prepubescent minors under 12-years-old,” on a laptop seized during a search of Davis’s home on Thursday.

#FBI Boston special agents have arrested Thomas Davis, a teacher at Foxborough High School, on child exploitation charges. He was safely taken into custody at his home in Mansfield, MA, this morning & has been detained pending a 9/1/21 hearing. https://t.co/N3fkhPntEX
— FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) August 26, 2021

Foxborough Public Schools Superintendent Amy Berdos told CBS Boston that Davis has worked at the high school for three years, and has been placed on unpaid administrative leave. The school will hold a Zoom meeting soon for parents to answer questions.

Davis can be seen in a video posted in Sept. 2020 speaking about a program at the high school.

According to FBI Special Agent Derek Back’s affidavit, someone reported Davis to the FBI on July 1, 2021, after Davis apparently showed him a video of Davis engaging in sexual acts with a person who appeared to be a minor. The unnamed person who reported the video told agents Davis said the individual was one of his students. The FBI obtained warrants to search his home on Wednesday.

Agents entered Davis’s home around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Back wrote, Davis did not resist. Davis apparently admitted there was child pornography on his computer, and gave officers the password. Back said Davis told agents he’d downloaded images from an app, but denied ever touching a child in an inappropriate manner.

The affidavit described several images in detail, which included boys that appeared to be 4-to-8-years-old. Agents also located the approximately 20-minute video the reporting person had described on Davis’s phone. Back described the video and wrote that Davis appears to be engaging in sexual acts with a young male. Davis claimed the person in the video said they were over 18-years-old, and that he’d met them online. The FBI is working to identify and find the other person in the video.

Davis is facing five to 20 years in prison and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Davis appeared in federal court Thursday and was detained; a probable cause and detention hearing is set for Sept. 1. Anyone with information regarding the case should call 617-748-3274.