Twice-Convicted North Carolina Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To Attempting To Entice 11-Year-Old Child To Engage In Sexual Activity

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces that Geoffrey Lee Dudding (39, Concord, NC) has pleaded guilty to using his cellphone and the internet to attempt to entice an 11-year-old child to engage in sexual activity. Dudding faces a minimum penalty of 10 years, up to life, in federal prison and a potential lifetime term of supervised release. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 14, 2026. Dudding, a registered child sex offender who was previously convicted in North Carolina of indecent liberty with a minor (2007) and solicitation of a child by computer to commit an unlawful sex act (2024), was arrested by FBI agents in Concord, North Carolina on May 8, 2025.

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

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cabarrus County (North Carolina) Sheriff’s Office. It is being 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 and rescue child victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.