Passenger to Boston facing child porn charges after fellow flyer spots pics on his phone

A Massachusetts man is facing several child pornography charges after allegedly watching pornographic videos on his phone of prepubescent children and trying to arrange sex with them during a flight from Nashville to Boston, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office announced.

Jed Cohen, 74, of Dartmouth, was arraigned Wednesday in an East Boston court on charges of child pornography possession, disseminating photographs of sexual or intimate parts of a child, and paying for sexual conduct with a child under 18, according to Hayden’s office.

He was ordered held on $10,000 bail with home confinement, including GPS monitoring if released. Cohen is due back in court on Aug. 16 for a probable cause hearing. 

Investigators say Cohen was on a JetBlue flight on Tuesday night headed for Logan International Airport when another passenger notified the crew that a man, later identified as Cohen, was looking at disturbing photos and having “sickening” text message conversations. Cohen had allegedly started the behavior before takeoff and carried it out through the rest of the flight, according to officials. 

Officials said the witness later told Massachusetts State Police that Cohen looked at multiple photos and videos of various young girls, ranging from toddler-aged to around 10- and 11-year-olds.

The witness told investigators Cohen appeared to be texting someone on WhatsApp, according to police. At one point, the witness allegedly saw Cohen ask how old the girls were, and the answer was age 4 and age 5, officials said. Cohen then allegedly inquired how much it would cost to have sex with one of the girls, according to police.

A flight crew member also told investigators they saw two photos of underage girls on Cohen’s phone — one was unclothed from the waist up, Hayden said. 

After the plane landed at Logan, troopers met Cohen, who provided his phone’s passcode, according to officials. Troopers looked through the device and saw messages consistent with the information provided by the witness and flight crewmember, according to police.

Investigators found additional pornographic photos of underage girls, including images of a child performing a sex act on an adult, according to officials. In one message, Cohen inquired about the price of having a sexual encounter with a 3-year-old at his condo, according to the statement.

“To call these allegations disturbing is a vast understatement. Sexual exploitation of any kind inflicts lifelong scars, and the harm increases exponentially when the victims are children. I thank this passenger for alerting the flight crew and I’m grateful for the crew’s swift action in notifying authorities,” Hayden said.