BELCHERTOWN MAN SENTENCED FOR POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

BOSTON, MA - A Belchertown man was sentenced today in federal court for possession of child pornography.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation New England Field Division, Francis Fox, Chief of the Belchertown Police, and Mark Delaney, Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police, announced today that CHRISTOPHER COTE , age 35, of 94 Wilson Road in Belchertown, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to 51 months imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and a $ 100 fine. COTE pleaded guilty on September 5, 2007 to possession of child pornography..

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven that COTE possessed hundreds of images of child pornography on his home computer.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Massachusetts State Police, and the Belchertown Police. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hart Smyth, Chief of U.S. Attorney Sullivan’s Springfield Branch Office.