Mass. man sentenced for distributing child sex abuse images

An Amherst, Massachusetts, man has been sentenced to up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges surrounding the possession of child sexual abuse material.

According to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, Blake Lassiter pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, nine counts of dissemination of child sexual abuse material; and a single count of possession with intent to distribute child sexual abuse material. He was sentenced to 4 and a half to five years in prison and five years probation. He is also prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors, will be required to undergo sex offender treatment and must allow the Probation Department to search his electronic devices.

The case against Lassiter started after investigators received cyber tips that he was sending and receiving child sex abuse images, first in Oregon, then in Amherst when he moved. Prosecutors said he was sending the images to someone in the United Kingdom through uploads to Reddit.

“Despite the best efforts of the Amherst Police Department and the National Child Victim Identification Program at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we were unable to identify the child victims depicted in these images, but we know the impact of the defendant’s behavior on those children is devastating,” said Assistant District Attorney Anne Yereniuk in a media statement.