Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan praised the thoroughness of the investigation.
Jason Phelps, 23, of 2 Hold Road, Ashburnham, was arraigned Monday in Orange District Court on charges of enticement of a child under 16 and dissemination of matter harmful to a minor, offenses that occurred in Erving.
Police said Phelps engaged in explicit online exchange of messages and sent a photo of himself nude via the Internet to a recipient he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
Phelps was arrested Friday by Erving and Massachusetts State Police with the Northwestern District Attorney’s Child Sexual Predator Task Force.
A search warrant was executed at Phelps’ house in Ashburnham. Police identified Phelps’ bedroom as being the same one in which the nude photo was taken and seized a number of items that appeared in the photograph, as well as the defendant’s laptop, according to a statement released by the Northwestern District Attorney's Office.
State police assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office assisted with the search warrant execution and arrest, and the Ashburnham Police Department provided a location for coordination of the operation.
“Erving police and Massachusetts State Police with the Child Sexual Predator Task Force with the assistance of the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office and Ashburnham Police conducted a thorough and intensive investigation which led to this arrest,” Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said in a statement. “It is thanks to efforts like these that we are able to identify sexual predators before they harm minors.”
Phelps was released on $5,000 cash bail with the conditions that he not frequent social media sites or have any unsupervised contact with children under 16.
The case was continued until Sept. 4 in Orange District Court.