GREENFIELD — A Montague man will spend 18 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty in Franklin County Superior Court to 12 charges related to child sexual abuse.
Ryan Montpelier, 39, will also be on seven years of supervised probation following his release, according to the sentence imposed by Judge Jeremy Bucci.
Montpelier appeared in court on Friday, May 8, to change his plea to guilty on three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, four counts of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity, four counts of possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and one count of disseminating harmful materials to minors.
Montpelier was already a Level 3 sex offender and was sentenced as a subsequent offender on the three counts of indecent assault and battery due to a similar conviction in 2008. These convictions require Montpelier to continue to register as a sex offender.
According to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, the investigation began after the Hampshire/Franklin State Police Detective Unit received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children regarding an Instagram user sending harmful material to a minor and requesting naked pictures from that same minor, who identified herself as a 13-year-old girl.
The State Police Detective Unit reportedly obtained and executed a search warrant on Montpelier’s digital accounts. The investigation subsequently revealed that Montpelier was both collecting child sexual abuse material and creating new material of at least two children, aged 5 and 2.
Assistant District Attorneys Stephanie Jimenez and Jillian Parent prosecuted the case. Family Service Advocate Linda Rogers provided support to the victim’s mother. The sentence was jointly recommended by the state and defense attorney Allison Pash.
“This sentence demonstrates that individuals who exploit children, whether online or in person, will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by this office,” Jimenez said in a statement. “The harm inflicted upon the children depicted in the images and videos collected by the defendant, as well as those he created himself, is immeasurable and cannot be undone. Our office remains committed to protecting vulnerable children and holding offenders fully accountable for the devastating harm they cause.
“This prosecution was the result of extensive collaboration among multiple law enforcement agencies working together to protect children from exploitation,” she added. “We are grateful to everyone whose efforts helped hold the defendant accountable, especially Trooper Paul Marguet of the State Police Detective Unit, whose investigative work led to the identification of a previously unidentified victim.”
After Montpelier is released, he will be required to participate in and complete a sex offender evaluation and recommended treatment, have no unsupervised contact with children under 18 years of age, not reside with or have overnight stays with minors, have no contact with the victim, comply with the Sex Offender Registry Board, wear a GPS monitoring device and submit to random searches of all digital devices.
