Buffalo police ask for help finding missing 12-year-old boy

BERKSHIRE COUNTY, MA – A Massasuchussets man has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of predatory behavior and luring a young child in Berkshire County.

“In 2021, the defendant used Omegle* to connect with an 11-year-old child. Through the connection on Omegle, the defendant used predatory tactics to obtain graphic sexual content, on more than one platform, targeting an 11-year-old child “This is the second time the accused has demonstrated such predatory criminal behavior, with the first offense occurring in 2018. The child’s caregiver alerted the forces. “of the situation after checking the child’s technological device,” according to police.

District Attorney Shugrue said, “My office requested 10 years in state prison because the defendant used specific predatory tactics to obtain graphic sexual content from an 11-year-old child and had proven history of child sexual abuse. With only two years between his first and second assault, it is clear that there is a pattern of targeted behavior. Children are among our most vulnerable population and we must do everything we can to protect them.

The Commonwealth requested 10 years in state prison for the first and second charges of posing/exhibiting a child naked and posing/exhibiting a child during a sexual act and five years of probation thereafter for the accusation of diffusion. The Defense requested probation for the first and second counts, as well as a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence for the dissemination charge.

He was sentenced to 2 years in prison for distribution of material harmful to minors, second offense, and three years probation thereafter for displaying/exhibiting a child naked and posing/exposing a child in a sexual act. The conditions of probation are to attend counseling.

District Attorney Shugrue added, “Cases like this highlight the extreme risk children face on apps and websites. Child predators take advantage of every opportunity on every platform to attack, sexually abuse and exploit children. We must protect our children. In today’s society, a major part of this protection is monitoring the use of phones, tablets and online technologies.