LOUISVILLE, KY – A Louisville man was sentenced on Monday to 32 years in prison followed by a life term of Supervised Release for production, attempted production, distribution, and possession of child pornography. There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents, in 2017 and 2019, Shaun Douglas Dickson, 26, engaged in conversations with children on the Internet while posing as both an 11-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy. During these conversations, Dickson sent images of child pornography to children he met online, including young girls in Greece and Australia that he attempted to and successfully induced and coerced into creating images of sexually explicit conduct to send to him. Dickson further threatened a child that he would distribute the images of child pornography he had produced of her to her friends and family if she did not send him additional images, and then subsequently distributed those images to other children. After a search warrant was conducted at his residence in 2019, Dickson was also found to be in possession of over 1,200 images and videos of child pornography.
“The outstanding effort of the investigators and prosecutors assigned to the case ended the activities of a sexual predator who exploited children internationally,” stated United States Attorney Michael A. Bennett. “I commend the work and partnership of Attorney General Cameron’s office and HSI Nashville.”
“Thanks to the partnership between our Cyber Crimes Unit, HSI, and U.S. Attorney Bennett’s team, we were able to stop this criminal from continuing to exploit children online,” said Attorney General Cameron. “Our children deserve childhoods free from exploitation, abuse, and neglect, and collaboration among law enforcement agencies through initiatives like Project Safe Childhood are essential to protecting our youngest.”
“HSI agents make it a top priority to protect vulnerable children who become victims of online sexual predators,” said HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Jerry C. Templet, Jr. “The investigative efforts of our agents in this case, working with the Kentucky State Attorney General’s office, ensured that this offender will pay for his inexcusable acts with a lengthy stay in federal prison.”
The Office of the Kentucky Attorney General and the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alicia Gomez and Stephanie Zimdahl prosecuted the case.
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This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources
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