North Carolina Convicted Sex Offender Sentenced To 50 Years In Federal Prison For Attempting To Entice 11-Year-Old Child To Engage In Sexual Activity

Jacksonville, Florida – Geoffrey Lee Dudding (40, Concord, NC) was sentenced by United States District Judge Wendy W. Berger to 50 years in federal prison for using his cellphone and the internet to attempt to entice an 11-year-old child to engage in sexual activity. He was also ordered to serve a lifetime term of supervised release. Dudding pleaded guilty on October 28, 2025. Dudding is a registered child sex offender who was previously convicted in North Carolina of indecent liberty with a minor in 2007 and solicitation of a child by computer to commit an unlawful sex act in 2024. He was also convicted of criminal solicitation of a minor in South Carolina in 2023. On May 8, 2025, Dudding was arrested in North Carolina and was later transported to Jacksonville for prosecution.

According to court documents, on January 13, 2025, an FBI agent (UC) in Jacksonville was conducting an undercover operation to identify individuals seeking to make online contact with and engage in sexual activity with children. Posing as the parent of an 11-year-old child, UC posted several short messages in a public chat room on an online social messaging platform (app). An individual using the app name “metalh34d321,” who was subsequently identified as Dudding, contacted UC by private text message on the app and expressed sexual interest in UC’s “daughter.” Dudding told UC, “Let me know if ya ever down to let me do her.” Despite being advised that the “child” was 11 years old and lived in Florida, Dudding stated that he wanted to meet the “child” and “[h]ave a good time and sex.” Dudding described the sexual acts that he wanted to perform on the “child” and sent UC a video of himself performing a sex act to show to the “child.”

Dudding and UC also communicated by cellphone text messaging. They discussed plans for Dudding to travel to Jacksonville so that he could engage in sexual activity with the “child.” Dudding told UC that he intended to book a hotel room in Jacksonville for the sexual encounter with the “child.” 

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

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 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, rescue, and seek justice for child victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.