A former church pianist with an obsession for child pornography was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison here Thursday for images of children being raped that he downloaded on a computer after breaking into a local radio station in 2006.
Robert Blakeslee, 67, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. Middle District Senior Judge Yvette Kane, getting one of the longest - if not the longest - child pornography sentence ever in the local federal court.
The judge, who sentenced the defendant for a similar charge about a decade ago, acknowledged it is "essentially a life sentence," but showed little sympathy for Blakeslee, who has one prior federal child pornography conviction and has spent about half the past decade in custody serving time for that offense and numerous violations of court-ordered supervision.
Blakeslee was described during the hearing as an articulate, highly intelligent and musically gifted man, but the judge found no grounds for going below the recommended sentencing guidelines.
She noted his repeated violations and inability to stay away from child pornography culminating in the break-in that led to his arrest and the discovery that he had been viewing graphic images of children as young as 6 being shackled and raped by adult men.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Samuelson said the only reason Blakeslee has not become a "contact offender" of young children is "luck" and noted a prior arrest that involved stalking-like behavior of a 14-year-old girl.
Blakeslee blamed a bi-polar disorder and failure to get into treatment or long-term counseling programs for failing to check his sex addiction.
Near the end of a long, rambling statement, he lamented the length of incarceration he faced and the fact he has not yet been able to see all of his four grandchildren, expressing the hope he will be released before he is "too old to have an intelligent conversation with (them)."
An estimate of how long the man will serve with time-served and good-time credits factored in suggests he will be at least 91 years old before he is a free man again.
