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Blake Lassiter pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, nine counts of dissemination of child sexual abuse material, and one count of possession with intent to distribute child sexual abuse material, the Northwestern District Attorney's Office said.
He is currently serving a two-year sentence in Oregon for similar charges. His sentence in Massachusetts will begin when that is finished.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 10 to 12 years, the DA said.
Police began investigating Lassiter after receiving tips that he was sending and receiving the offensive material. Authorities said he was sharing them with another person in the United Kingdom.
Police in Oregon first began an investigation into Lassiter, a former member of the US Coast Guard, before he moved to Amherst.
Lassiter will also spend five years of probation after he's released and must undergo sex offender treatment and avoid all unsupervised contact with children, the judge ruled.
Investigators are still searching for the victims shown in the child sexual abuse material that Lassiter shared, said Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Anne Yereniuk.
“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," she said.
Yereniuk thanked Amherst police and Clatsop County Sheriff’s office in Oregon for their work on the case.
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