NORTHAMPTON — A Granby man who police say possessed some 3,000 images and videos of child pornography pleaded guilty to the allegations Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court and was sentenced to jail.

Judge Richard Carey sentenced Sean W. Scully, 46, to 2½ years in jail after Scully pleaded guilty to a single charge of possessing child pornography. He was ordered to serve two of those years. The remaining six months were suspended over five years during which he will be on probation with conditions.

Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the attorney general’s office received a tip in April 2016 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that eight images of child sexual abuse had been uploaded from a 413 area-code phone number that was later determined to belong to Scully, Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General Elizabeth Vasiliades said in court.

The girl in the images was determined to be around the age of 10 or 11.

After obtaining a search warrant on July 25, 2016, police searched Scully’s Granby home. At that time, Scully admitted it was his phone number and that he had seen the images while searching for images of “nudist or naturalist,” Vasiliades said.

During the search, troopers found a flash-drive hidden on top of cabinets in the home’s kitchen. On it, police found 3,000 images and videos of pre-pubescent girls estimated to be from 5 to 12 years old, Vasiliades explained.

Vasiliades recommended that Scully be sentenced to 3 to 5 years in state prision.

“We believe at this point Mr. Scully needs some type of deterrent and punishment,” she said.

In arguing for the sentence, Vasiliades said Scully had completed a sex offender treatment program in 2012.

Defense attorney Jesse Adams argued that a better balance for meaningful rehabilitation, punishment and deterrence of future crimes would be 2½ years in jail.

“The crime is very serious. Mr. Scully has had a tough life but he is working hard on his serious mental heath issues,” Adams said.

In support of his recommendation, Adams told the judge Scully had a history of childhood physical, sexual and emotional abuse and had never received proper treatment for the trauma.

After his 2016 arrest, Scully spent time at the Brattleboro Retreat, receiving treatment for multiple mental health issues and has since been seeing a licensed clinical social worker weekly, according to Adams.

Carey took a brief recess to consider the lawyers’ arguments before returning to pronounce sentence. Following the sentence, Scully was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.

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