Worcester Woman Charged With lying To FBI In Child Sex Probe

The FBI has charged a Worcester woman with making false statements to authorities who were investigating her son's actions in connection with the daycare facility she operated out of her home.  Here is the Justice Department statement:

A Worcester woman was charged in federal court in Worcester Tuesday with lying to federal agents investigating child exploitation offenses which occurred at her home daycare.

Donna Belanger, 49, was charged with making false statements to the FBI about her son’s prior sexual assaults against children and about whether her son had been allowed unsupervised contact with the children in her home daycare center.

According to the criminal complaint affidavit, in February of this year FBI and Worcester Police executed a federal search warrant at the home of Donna Belanger, in connection with the arrest of her son, Brian Belanger, on charges of producing child pornography.  During the execution of that warrant, the FBI interviewed Donna Belanger about her knowledge of her son’s prior sexual assaults against children and whether her son had been allowed unsupervised contact with the children in her home day care.

While Donna admitted that her daycare had been shut down in June 2012 after an investigation of claims that her son Brian had sexually assaulted a child attending the daycare, Donna allegedly denied any other knowledge of her son sexually assaulting a child.  It further alleges that Donna repeatedly denied that Brian had ever been allowed unsupervised contact with the children in her day care.

According to the affidavit, a subsequent investigation, including interviews of Brian and other witnesses, revealed that Donna knew that her son Brian had previously sexually assaulted a six-year-old neighbor in 2005 and that she had allowed her son to have unsupervised access to the children in her home daycare.

According to the affidavit, Brian Belanger has admitted to sexually assaulting multiple children, both male and female, who had attended his mother’s home daycare center.

Members of the public who have questions, concerns or information regarding this case should call 617-748-3274.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of no more than eight years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the statutory maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.