Beshear: Investigation, arrest of predator leads to 30-year Federal Prison sentence

FRANKFORT, KY. (WTVQ)- A 2016 investigation and arrest of an online predator by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s cyber team has led to a 30-year federal prison sentence.

Cyber investigators arrested  60-year-old David Dunn, of Dayton, Ohio, in October of 2016, after he traveled to Georgetown, Kentucky, seeking sex with a minor. He was charged with one count of prohibited use of an electronic communications system to procure a minor for sex, a Class D felony.

Dunn was one of 10 individuals arrested and charged as part of Beshear’s 9-county child predator roundup in October 2016 called “Operation Shielded Child.”

In securing the conviction of Dunn Sept. 20, 2018, federal prosecutors used testimony and casework from Beshear’s Department of Criminal Investigations Cyber Crimes Unit who conducted an online undercover investigation before arresting Dunn.

Dunn was sentenced by United States District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove for crossing a state line with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a person who was under the age of 12.

This evidence collection can be done within the unit’s cyber lab, or in the field to meet the demands of an extenuating circumstance. The office’s forensic detectives not only support the office’s needs, but support local, state and federal law enforcement agencies that do not have their own cyber investigation and forensic capabilities.

Beshear said that Kentuckians have a moral and legal duty to report any instance of child abuse to local law enforcement or to Kentucky’s Child Abuse hotline at 877-597-2331 or 877-KYSAFE1.