WEST VIRGINIA MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 22 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON ON CHILD EXPLOITATION CHARGES

NASHVILLE –Shaun J. Sanders, 45, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was sentenced yesterday to 22 1/2 years in federal prison for the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, announced United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. That term of imprisonment will be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.

In July 2022, the defendant, who was a registered sex offender, communicated with an FBI online covert employee, who was posing as a thirteen-year-old female, on an online dating platform.  The defendant engaged in sexually explicit chats with the online covert employee, sent the online covert employee an explicit photo of himself, and requested nude photos and videos of the person he believed to be a minor female.

A federal grand jury indicted the defendant in 2022 on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of attempted transfer of obscene material to an individual under the age of sixteen, and the penalty for registered sex offenders. On May 8, 2023, he pled guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica R. Morrison prosecuted this case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.justice.gov/psc.

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