BOSTON — A 70-year-old physician employed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford has been arrested and charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material.
Sven Knudsen Ljaamo was charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Ljaamo was arrested Wednesday morning and ordered detained following an initial appearance in federal court in Boston.
A detention hearing is scheduled for April 29.
According to charging documents, law enforcement received a CyberTip reporting that over 100 files of suspected child sexual abuse material had allegedly been uploaded to Ljaamo’s Google account.
Investigators said Ljaamo admitted to viewing, downloading and saving pornographic material involving female minors.
Several files of child sexual abuse material, along with tens of thousands of pornography files, were allegedly found during a review of Ljaamo’s devices, including on a cell phone kept in his office at the VA Medical Center.
The charges of receipt and possession of child pornography each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The receipt charge specifically carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
