A Level 2 sex offender who was convicted of raping 7 and 8-year-old girls has been sentenced to prison after the feds busted him for child pornography.

Billerica man Eric Johnson, 51, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Thursday, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Level 2 sex offender — who was convicted in 1992 for aggravated felonious sexual assault of a child under 13 for raping two girls in New Hampshire — was caught possessing more than 5,000 files of child sexual abuse material.

Children’s clothing, mutilated dolls and diapers were also found at his home.

“Mr. Johnson is an extremely dangerous individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his predatory interest in children,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy. “He belongs in prison for a long time.

“The victims of child pornography are not abstractions or objects – they are real kids who experienced sexual exploitation in order for these pictures or images to be distributed and possessed,” Levy added. “Although today’s sentence cannot erase the ongoing pain endured by the victims from their traumatic abuse, the message about the severe consequences of possessing child pornography should be crystal clear.”

In early 2022, Johnson was identified as a user of a peer-to-peer internet network downloading child sexual abuse material. Police searches of his home resulted in the recovery of 25 electronic devices, including a laptop, hard drives and other electronic devices.

Multiple hard drives were found hidden next to Johnson’s bed — as well as hidden inside Johnson’s basement ceiling, shelves, cabinets, and in an ammunition can located in a crawl space at the residence. The laptop at the time was running a program to delete files from a hard drive, and was about 56% complete before being disabled by a forensic examiner.

Police also found two children’s backpacks from under his bed that contained various children’s clothing, including: bathing suits and a nightgown; a bag of children’s costumes; children’s diapers; and at least three child-sized dolls. What appeared to be bodily fluids were found in at least two of the dolls, police said.

A forensic exam revealed more than 5,000 files depicting child pornography on seven of the devices, including images and video files depicting the sexual abuse and rape of minor victims as young as infants and toddlers.

Many other disturbing items were also located on the devices, including images and videos of bestiality, photos of women’s deceased bodies, as well as videos of Johnson engaging in sexual acts with dolls.

“This lifetime sex offender admitted to amassing thousands of images of babies, toddlers, and children suffering horrific sexual abuse, and today’s sentence reflects the severity and depravity of his crime,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division.

“Those photos and videos represent unimaginable pain forced upon utterly vulnerable victims, some too young to walk or talk,” Cohen added. “It’s cases like this that drive the FBI and our partners, as we work to protect the children in our communities from predators like Eric Johnson.”

In addition to the 10 years in prison, Johnson was sentenced to five years of supervised release. Johnson was ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $38,000.

Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography earlier this year. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest in February 2022.

Information via Town of Tewksbury

TEWKSBURY, MA —Members of boards, committees or commissions provide a positive service that is invaluable to the continued progress of our town. They may advise the Select Board on a wide variety of issues by making recommendations on important matters. The detailed studies and considered advice of boards, committees or commissions are often catalysts for innovative programs and improved services. Serving on a board, committee or commission can be a rewarding experience for community service-minded residents. It is an excellent way to participate in the functioning of local government and to make a personal contribution to the improvement of our community.

There are a number of vacancies on boards and committees in town. The Select Board welcomes residents who have an interest in serving on the Town’s various Committees/Boards. Please complete our Online Application.

You may also request a printable copy of the application from the Town Clerk’s Office and return it to: Town Hall, 1009 Main Street, Tewksbury, MA 01876, Attn: Denise Graffeo, Town Clerk or via e-mail to townclerk@tewksbury-ma.gov

Those hoping to fill a vacancy should have their applications submitted by June 1st.

Boards with vacancies:

• Council on Aging
• Economic Development Committee
• Massachusetts Cultural Council
• Tewksbury School Facilities Study Committee

For more information, visit www.tewksbury-ma.gov.

Nearly 200 employees joined the ranks of Gov. Maura Healey’s administration in the month after strict hiring measures were put into place across the executive branch to control costs amid flailing state revenues, according to a publicly available database.

The 199 workers who started their jobs between April 4 and April 28 collectively added more than $14.2 million to the $3 billion state payroll through yearly salaries alone with the highest-paid worker, a chief nursing officer at the Department of Public Health, taking home $159,120, a Herald analysis of state records shows.

The top five new hires, including the DPH nursing officer, make at least $134,515 a year, according to state records. Those hires also work in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Department of Transportation.

A spokesperson for Healey’s budget-writing office said the 199 hires included positions for which job offers were made before the hiring measures took effect on April 3.

“It was always assumed and communicated that hiring would continue during this period through exempt positions and waivers for critical needs. We will continue to evaluate the state’s fiscal needs and make determinations about hiring and whether the timeline needs to be extended as we approach the end of June based on revenue collections, year-end spending, and other fiscal conditions,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald.

The database covers new hires for externally posted positions and does not include internal promotions or lateral transfers within an agency, according to the Office of the Comptroller. The data does not reference any offers of employment that have been extended by the Healey administration but not yet made official.

Some offers of employment that have been publicly announced over the past month also do not appear in the database, which is organized by effective date of hire.

The list, for example, appears not to feature Alison Brizius, who was appointed last month by Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper to serve as the director of the Office of Coastal Zone Management.

Brizius, who starts in the role on May 6 and will earn a $155,000 yearly salary, accepted a job offer on March 26, according to a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Healey restricted the autonomy of executive branch agencies and departments to seek new employees last month without sign-off from her budget office. The move came in the face of struggling revenues and skyrocketing state-run shelter costs, two factors that have put pressure on Beacon Hill to rein in spending.

The immediate pause on hiring took effect April 3 and is initially scheduled to run through the end of June, according to a memo from the state’s interim chief human resources officer, Melissa Pullin. Hires, rehires, or transfers into the executive department are “permitted only where affordable within existing payroll caps,” the memo said.

But there is a lengthy list of positions across the executive branch that are exempted from needing sign-off from the state’s budget office, including seasonal hires, positions that are required to be filled by a court order or settlement agreement, returns from leave, and offers made before April 3.

Officials were asked to remove job postings that were not exempted and notify “applicants that the job opening has been temporarily suspended due to fiscal constraints,” according to the memo. Agencies had until April 16 at 5 p.m. to submit a waiver to hire new employees.

The spokesperson for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said 176 waivers have been approved by the office, largely for full-time employees and positions that were posted before the hiring rules started.

Some 216 job postings for a total of 240 open positions were removed as of April 26, the spokesperson said. Job postings for which waivers were sought have not been removed, according to the spokesperson.

About a fifth of the workers who started a job in the Healey administration between April 4 and 28 joined the Department of Conservation and Recreation. A number of those employees were filling seasonal roles like temporary firefighters, greenskeepers, or conservation biologists, among others.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation alone added roughly $2.2 million to the state’s payroll, according to an analysis of the Office of the Comptroller’s database. Only a handful of new employees at the agency were permanent hires, the data showed.

A spokesperson for the Department of Conservation and Recreation said the agency largely operates on a seasonal basis, with spring through fall considered the busiest time millions are welcomed to parks, campgrounds, beaches, and pools.

The agency typically hires roughly 2,000 summer seasonal staff of which 700 to 800 are lifeguards and waterfront and pool staff, the spokesperson said in a statement.

The database also shows that the vast majority of new workers who joined the administration last month started their jobs between April 4 and April 9. Only three people started work in April after those dates, all of them at the Department of Developmental Services, according to the database.

Only one employee on the list who started work on April 7 at the Department of Developmental Services as a direct care worker had a reference letter from an elected state official, according to the data.