Bridgewater State Student Arrested On Child Porn Charges

BRIDGEWATER (CBS) -- A Bridgewater State University student has been charged with possessing and dealing child pornography.

Freshman Thomas Masse, 18, of New Bedford, was arrested Monday after he allegedly downloaded images from a website and shared them through an online chat room.

Masse has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Police say no one else at the university was involved in the incident and there's no evidence that he used the university's computer network. Masse did not have contact with children on campus, the school said in a statement.

Masse has been suspended from Bridgwater State, pending an internal investigation.

"Words cannot express how upset I am by these events," the university's president Frederick Clark wrote in a letter to students and staff. "This is an isolated case that we will pursue vigorously."

Earlier this year, a former Bridgewater State student, 22-year-old Kyle Loughlin, was charged with sexually assaulting two young boys while working at a day care center on campus.