A Queens, N.Y., man was indicted Thursday for allegedly posing as a teenager to sexually exploit a 13-year-old Massachusetts girl he met online, officials said.
A federal grand jury in US District Court in Boston indicted Andre Jamal Bennett, 33, on charges of sexual exploitation of children and interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, US Attorney Leah B. Foley’s office said in a statement.
Bennett, a former Delta Air Lines ground controller at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, had created multiple social media accounts for a 16-year-old purportedly named “Chris” in September 2025, prosecutors said.
He met up with the 13-year-old in November when he took a flight from New York to Boston, prosecutors said.
Bennett allegedly “met the minor victim wearing a hooded sweatshirt concealing his face,” prosecutors said, and he later allegedly “brought the minor victim to a hotel and raped her.”
Prosecutors said he also recorded the assault on his phone.
“Following the encounter, Bennett allegedly continued to contact the minor victim through social media over the course of several months and sought to entice her to meet with him again, including by offering to pay her,” prosecutors said. “The minor victim refused.”
An arraignment date for Bennett hasn’t been set.
He’s currently being held without bail, but his lawyer argued at a Sept. 22 hearing that he should be released on bond pending trial, records show.
A magistrate judge took a government motion for his continued detention under advisement, according to court records.
Bennett’s lawyer declined to comment Thursday.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.