West Hatfield Man Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison and a Lifetime of Supervised Release for Receiving and Possessing Child Pornography

BOSTON, MA—A West Hatfield man was sentenced yesterday in federal court for receiving and possessing child pornography.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division, announced today that LAWRENCE CAVE, 51, of West Hatfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to 18 years' imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. CAVE pled guilty to two counts of receiving material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possessing material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor on September 11, 2009.

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, while serving probation for a 2006 state conviction for disseminating visual material of a child in nudity and possessing child pornography, CAVE both received and possessed additional child pornography. In particular, on May 3, 2008, CAVE posed online as a 16-year-old boy and induced a 13-year-old girl to make and e-mail him sexually explicit photographs of herself. On September 11, 2008, agents executed a search warrant at CAVE’s residence and located, on various computer media, approximately 285 images of child pornography, including images of prepubescent children engaged in sexual acts.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.