A Fall River babysitter raped 2 kids and made child porn. She was sent to federal prison.
A Fall River woman will spend the next 25 years in prison for repeatedly molesting two children she babysat — a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old toddler — and using them to produce child porn she shared with a boyfriend.
Nichole Cyr, 27, of Fall River was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston to 25 years imprisonment and five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to two charges of sexual exploitation of children.
Cyr was arrested in July 2020 after a tenant in her apartment building found Cyr’s misplaced iPhone and discovered it contained several photos and videos of children being sexually abused and raped.
Child pornography conviction: Swansea man sent to prison for having child porn. He won't be free for many years.
Cyr's arrest and the investigation
The tenant and landlord contacted Fall River police, who arrested Cyr and interviewed her. Prosecutors said Cyr admitted that the phone was hers and that she babysat the two children depicted in the photos and videos on multiple occasions; she further admitted to touching the children’s genitalia and performing sexual acts on the children, and to sending explicit images of herself doing so to a man with whom she had a sexual relationship.
The victims’ parent confirmed that based on the photo evidence, the abuses appear to have taken place in the children’s home in New Bedford.
Cyr sent the photos and videos to Paul Weddington of Boston, a man with whom prosecutors in a pre-sentencing memo described Cyr as having an “apparent master/slave relationship.”
'Cult murders' case: Woman convicted in Fall River 'Satanic cult' killings denied parole — here's why
Images in Weddington’s possession revealed that he and Cyr had engaged in video calls in which Cyr abused the 2-year-old child.
Weddington, 51, was convicted in June 2022 of receiving child pornography and sentenced to 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release. He is currently serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut.
U.S. attorney calls case 'every parent's nightmare'
“The crimes committed by Ms. Cyr are unconscionable and every parent’s nightmare,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. “While a trusted babysitter, she sexually exploited two defenseless children who were two and seven years old at the time. ... Today’s sentence ensures that this dangerous predator is exactly where she belongs — removed from our community and behind bars.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Paruti, chief of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit, prosecuted the case. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin presided over Cyr’s proceedings.
“Nichole Cyr was trusted to care for a child and betrayed that trust in the most egregious manner,” said Michael J. Krol, acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England. “The sexual abuse and exploitation of a child has long-term and far-reaching impacts on the life of the child and their family. We at Homeland Security Investigations hope that this sentencing offers some peace and a measure of justice as they move forward.”
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River woman Nichole Cyr sentenced for child exploitation, porn
