Camp councilor arrested for having child porn

PORTLAND – A 22-year-old camp counselor at an area boys camp will be arraigned Monday on charges of having child pornography on his computer.

Matthew Elansky of Jamaica Plain, Mass., was arrested on a warrant Friday at the camp. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, which issued the warrant, would not reveal the name or location of the camp except to say it served boys ages 8 to 15 years old.

There is no evidence that Elansky acted inappropriately with campers, according to John Grossman, chief of corruption, fraud and computer crime in Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly’s office.

Grossman said the nature of the charge led authorities to act quickly to remove Elansky from the camp once they learned of the pornography.

“From our point of view, given the priority and importance of protecting children, when we learn that a man with such charges, that he’s working with children, we act very quickly in order to protect children. We retrieved hundreds of images and movies of boys, including pre-pubescents, engaged in sexual activity,” he said.

“The charges are not that he was involved with creating these pictures or inappropriate contact with young boys. There’s no charges of inappropriate behavior at the camp. We have no evidence of that,” Grossman added.

Elansky will be arraigned in Maine District Court, where Massachusetts authorities will seek to charge him in his home state.

If he waives extradition, he will brought to Massachusetts this week and arraigned at West Roxbury District Court on child pornography charges, Grossman said.