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A Boylston man was sentenced today in federal court in Worcester for possessing and distributing child pornography.
Randy Alan Chaplis, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to seven years in prison and five years of supervised release. In December 2017, Chaplis pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography involving a prepubescent minor and a minor who had not attained 12 years of age. Chaplis was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on March 16, 2017, and has been detained since his arrest.
On Feb. 9, 2017, Chaplis sent two emails to an undercover law enforcement officer that included dozens of images of child pornography, including prepubescent girls engaged in sex acts with adult men. In other email communications with the undercover officer, Chaplis stated that he likes three-to-10 year olds, and that he has “fun” with his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter when her mother is not home. Chaplis emailed graphic descriptions of the sexual acts he purportedly performed on his girlfriend’s child starting when the child was two-years-old. He asked whether the undercover officer intended to have sexual intercourse with the undercover officer’s infant daughter once she turned three or four.
A search of Chaplis’ residence on March 15, 2017, resulted in the seizure of an external hard drive and a desktop computer that included multiple images of child pornography.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Peter Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Abely of Lelling’s Worcester Branch Office prosecuted the case.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
