HSI partners with State Attorney General’s office in child exploitation investigation resulting in conviction and lengthy federal prison sentence
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Kentucky man will serve 32 years in federal prison after being sentenced on Monday for production, attempted production, distribution, and possession of child pornography.
The Office of the Kentucky Attorney General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case.
“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.”
According to court documents, in 2017 and 2019, Shaun Douglas Dickson, 26, of Louisville, Kentucky, 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 2019 search of his residence, Dickson was also found to be in possession of over 1,200 images and videos of child pornography.
Upon his release from prison, Dickson will be supervised for life by U.S. Probation. There is no parole in the federal system.
“The outstanding effort of the investigators and prosecutors assigned to the case ended the activities of a sexual predator who exploited children internationally,” stated U.S. 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.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alicia Gomez and Stephanie Zimdahl prosecuted the case.
HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 Special Agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
Learn more about HSI’s mission @HSI_Nashville.
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