St. Augustine Man Pleads Guilty To Attempting To Entice And Meet Two Young Children To Engage In Sexual Activity

Jacksonville, Florida – Brian Ray Dunlap (67, St. Augustine) has pleaded guilty to attempting to entice two young children to engage in illegal sexual activity.  Dunlap faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years, and up to life, in federal prison, and a potential life term of supervised release. A sentencing date has not yet been set.   

According to court documents, on October 6, 2018, a detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, who was posing online as a custodial family member of two children (ages 9 and 12), received an email message from Dunlap, who identified himself as “Brian.” Between October 6, 2018 and October 9, 2018, Dunlap and the undercover detective exchanged emails and text messages about Dunlap’s desire to meet the “children” to engage in sexual activity with them. Dunlap advised that he was an amateur photographer and that he wanted to “[t]ake their pictures naked” and perform oral sex on them. Dunlap further provided the undercover detective with graphic details about the sexual acts that he wished to perform on the two “children,” and offered to pay the undercover detective $200 for sex with them and pornographic pictures of the “children.” 

On October 9, 2018, Dunlap traveled to a prearranged location in St. Johns County to meet the undercover detective and the two “children.” Upon his arrival, he was arrested. During an interview, Dunlap admitted that he had responded to the online notice posted by the undercover detective, had engaged in online conversation with that person, and that he had traveled to the particular location to meet that person and the two “children.”        

This case was investigated by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Jacksonville Office). It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This is another case 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."