NEWARK, N.J. – A man from Dracut, Massachusetts, was sentenced today to 235 months in prison for using the internet to solicit sex with a minor, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Federal officials say Richard Bly, 69, was convicted in July 2019 of online enticement of a minor after a two-day trial before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty, who imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence presented at trial:
On Feb. 7, 2017, Bly posted an advertisement on an internet website seeking to meet parents willing to allow Bly to engage in sexual activity with their young children.
Over the course of several weeks, Bly had numerous e-mail and text message exchanges with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as the mother of an 8-year-old girl.
In graphic and explicit terms, Bly repeatedly expressed his interest in engaging in sexual activity with the purported child, and made plans to meet the child and her mother at a hotel in Ramsey.
Law enforcement officers arrested Bly at the hotel on the same morning that Bly had planned to sexually assault the purported child.
At the time of his arrest, Bly was on bail after having been arrested and charged in August 2016 in Massachusetts state court for engaging in similar conduct.
In addition to the prison term, Judge McNulty sentenced Bly to 10 years of supervised release.