(Tribune News Service) — A Coast Guard veteran will serve a sentence of 4.5 to 5 years after pleading guilty to charges involving child sex abuse images.

The sentence in state prison follows a lengthy investigation sparked by cyber tips that Blake Lassiter of Amherst, Mass., had been sending and receiving images of sexual exploitation of children, according to the Northwestern District Attorney’s office.

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. Lassiter admitted to sending images of abuse to another person in the United Kingdom.

His sentence, handed down on Dec. 8, includes five years of probation following his release from prison.

The sentence will not begin immediately. Lassiter is currently serving a two-year jail sentence in Oregon for similar charges, and his Massachusetts sentence will begin after he completes that, the District Attorney’s office said.

“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,” Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Anne Yereniuk said.

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