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Suspect Charged in Lamont Library Sexual Assault

Peter E. Benson, a former affiliate of the Harvard Dental School, has been summoned to appear in Middlesex District Court on April 19 to face charges stemming from an alleged sexual assault in Lamont Library.

The victim, whose husband is a student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, says she woke up from a nap in Lamont around 3 p.m. on Feb. 23 when she felt something moving beneath her buttocks.

Subsequently, she identified the assailant to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), which sent him a summons to appear in court.

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However, they did not arrest him, and between the time when the summons was issued and his April 2 court date, he allegedly assaulted a minor at a Somerville movie theater, and was arrested by the Somerville Police.

An e-mail advisory prepared by the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) and sent to the Harvard community shortly after the original incident said the victim turned and saw her assailant, who immediately grabbed his belongings and fled the library.

However, the victim tells a different story.

She says that when she woke up, she saw her assailant and told him to come with her to the security desk.

She said that the suspect agreed and the two then walked from the reading room on the third floor of the library toward the security desk entrance.

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