SALEM — A 20-year-old from Saugus was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison and lifetime parole after admitting yesterday to raping three girls and taking or posting online explicit photos of one of those victims and two other girls.
It was a case that prompted a courtroom debate on teenage sexuality.
Kyle Fuchs and his lawyer, Fred McAlary, say that what he did was a result of coming of age in a teenage culture that condones practices such as "sexting" and "hooking up" with "friends with benefits."
But prosecutor Gregory Friedholm, who noted that Fuchs was on probation for another sexual assault at the time some of the offenses occurred, called Fuchs a predator who showed "absolute disregard for the personal integrity of others."
And Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said Fuchs went well beyond the behavior of other teens. "This kind of behavior is an outgrowth of the sexting culture," said the judge, who believes it "opens the door for predators to come in and exploit" teens.
"I suspect he didn't appreciate how wrong it was," Whitehead said of Fuchs. But Fuchs "shows a propensity which is very concerning to the court."
Fuchs came to the attention of authorities twice, the first time in the spring of 2006, when he was charged with raping a girl in Lynn. A plea agreement reduced the charges to indecent assault and battery, and he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
All the while, investigators would later learn, Fuchs, then 17, was dating and having sex with a 14-year-old girl from Swampscott and taking explicit photos of her, even after being put on probation in the Lynn case.
In 2007, police in Utah contacted the Massachusetts State Police, after discovering what they believed were 42 images of child pornography sent by Fuchs to a person there. Some of the pictures were of Fuchs' young girlfriend, who was later identified by police.
Police seized Fuchs' computer and found more than 5,000 other images of underage girls in explicit poses, including 174 in which they could identify the girls.
Among those images was that of a Lynn girl, who was 15 when Fuchs took at least seven explicit pictures, and of a girl in Texas, who had, at Fuchs' behest, taken photos of herself with signs reading "Kyle owns this" next to her nude body.
Another victim said Fuchs had invited her to watch television at his father's house in October 2004, and while there, attacked her, pinning her to a bed and forcibly raping her.
A year after that, police learned, Fuchs, a football player, asked out a girl he met at a Salem High School football game. She said he took her to a secluded spot and forced her to perform sexual activity. Then, after he apologized, she agreed to go on a date to the Topsfield Fair. Afterward, he forcibly raped her.
Police also identified pictures of a girl who had dated Fuchs five years earlier, when both of them were 14.
Friedholm said Fuchs met most of the girls online.
He said Fuchs' conduct shows a "nonchalance and lack of regard" for the girls, one of whom fell into a severe depression and was hospitalized.
"This defendant is showing a pattern of predatory conduct," Friedholm said.
But McAlary, who urged a shorter prison term, argued that while the allegations are "somewhat troublesome for those of us in our generation. ... I don't believe any of us realize how rampant this is among teenagers."
Fuchs offered an apology in court but failed to look at any of the girls who had come with their parents to watch yesterday's proceedings.
Whitehead's sentence of eight to 10 years will be followed by 15 years of supervised probation, during which he could go back to prison, and lifetime community parole supervision. He will also have to register as a sex offender, take part in sex offender treatment and wear a GPS monitoring bracelet.
The judge rejected McAlary's request to give Fuchs credit for 18 months of the time he's been in custody awaiting trial, because he was serving out the suspended sentence in the 2006 case.
During yesterday's hearing Whitehead criticized proposed sentencing guidelines that would have resulted in a sentence of less than five to six years in prison.
"I just cannot accept that," the judge said.
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