A Bowdoin College employee who served on the Brunswick Town Council has been charged with possessing sexually explicit material of a minor.
Christopher Watkinson
Christopher Watkinson, 43, was indicted in November by a Cumberland County Grand Jury on one charge of possession of sexually explicit material of a minor under 12, a Class C felony, and one charge of possession of sexually explicit material, a Class D misdemeanor.
According to the indictment, Watkinson is accused of accessing explicit images or videos in June 2021 of a child younger than 12. He also is accused of accessing sexually explicit material showing someone younger than 16.
Watkinson and his attorney, Mark Singer, did not respond Tuesday to requests to discuss the allegations.
Watkinson did send a statement to the Press Herald, saying he is not guilty and had been advised by his attorney to not discuss details of the case. He said that searches of nearly two dozen of his electronic devices turned up no evidence to support the charges against him.
“During the past 18 months, I have done everything in my power to cooperate with law enforcement’s investigation. In order to erase any suspicion of wrongdoing on my part, I provided law enforcement with 21 different electronic devices, along with login IDs and passwords, for them to search and analyze,” Watkinson said. “During my cooperation with this investigation I pleaded with law enforcement to be as thorough and expedient as possible, as I was and continue to be concerned about the impacts of such a charge on my family.”
An arrest affidavit detailing the evidence prosecutors have gathered against Watkinson was not in his court file Tuesday.
Watkinson, who was elected to represent District 5 in 2017 and ran unopposed for reelection in 2020, resigned from the town council on Nov. 18. In an email to town officials, he wrote that he was unable to continue his role as the District 5 councilor “due to personal reasons.”
“I thank the people of Brunswick for allowing me the opportunity to serve them, and I look forward to seeing the great work this council will achieve in the coming years,” he wrote.
Watkinson is a technical director and adjunct lecturer in music at Bowdoin. He currently is on leave, a college spokesperson said.
He also was active in the Brunswick schools, organizing a 2014 petition against a school board proposal to address overcrowding by moving fifth graders to the junior high school.
Watkinson was released on personal recognizance and is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with children under 18 except for his four children, who range in age from 10 to 15. He also is prohibited from using or possessing pornography and must submit to random searches of electronic devices that have access to the internet, court documents state.
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