Man Sentenced for Interstate Travel with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct

BUFFALO, NY—United States Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced the sentencing today of Charles Dunlop, 20, of Bangor, Maine, who was convicted of interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct on December 14, 2009. Mr. Dunlop was sentenced to 57 months in prison followed by 10 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara. Dunlop will be required to register as a sex offender and his computer will be monitored when he is on supervised release.

United States Attorney Hochul noted, "This case is yet another example of the outstanding cooperation among local, state, and federal law enforcement to ensure that those who target minors for sexual conduct will be removed from the community and after serving a prison term will be required to register as a sexual offender so law enforcement can continue to monitor this person."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who handled the case, stated that the defendant met a 13-year-old on the Internet and arranged to pick her up in Niagara County. After picking her up, he drove her to Ohio where he engaged in sexual activity with her. The minor victim was with Dunlop for three days before he dropped her off at a mall in Pennsylvania.

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 United States 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The conviction was the culmination of a joint investigation on the part of the Niagara County District Attorney's Office under the direction of Michael Violante, Niagara County District Attorney; the Niagara County Sheriff's Department under the direction of Sheriff James Voutour; Special Agents of the Buffalo Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Robertson, Special Agent In Charge; and agents from the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory. Federal Bureau of Investigation offices in Cleveland, Ohio; Bangor, Maine; and Erie, Pennsylvania, and the Bangor, Maine Police Department also assisted in the investigation.