Georgia Man Convicted of Child Sex Abuse Offenses

WASHINGTON—Dwain D. Williams was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Valdosta, Ga., on child sex abuse offenses, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney G.F. Peterman III of the Middle District of Georgia.

Williams was convicted of one count of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct, one count of aggravated sexual abuse, and one count of abusive sexual contact of a child under 12 years of age. The aggravated sexual abuse and the abusive sexual contact charges were committed while Williams was accompanying a member of the Armed Forces outside of the United States in violation of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). Williams faces a possible mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison for his conviction.

At trial, the female victim, currently 15 years old, testified that Williams had repeatedly raped her starting from when she was 9 years old until she was 13, when she lived in Okinawa, Japan.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah McEwen of the Middle District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Mi Yung C. Park of CEOS. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of Special Investigations for Moody Air Force.