A North Carolina man with a decades-long history of sex offenses was sentenced Friday to 50 years in federal prison for attempting to travel to Florida to sexually abuse an 11-year-old child.
United States District Judge Wendy W. Berger handed down the sentence to Geoffrey Lee Dudding, 40, of Concord, North Carolina. In addition to the five-decade prison term, Dudding was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release. The sentencing follows his guilty plea on October 28, 2025.
The investigation began a year ago, on January 13, 2025, when an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville initiated an operation to identify predators on social messaging apps. Posing as the parent of an 11-year-old, the agent posted messages in a public chat room.
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According to federal prosecutors, Dudding, utilizing the screen name “metalh34d321,” initiated a private message exchange with the undercover agent. During the conversation, Dudding expressed explicit sexual interest in the agent’s fictitious daughter.
Court documents reveal that despite being explicitly told the child was 11 years old and located in Florida, Dudding persisted. “Let me know if ya ever down to let me do her,” he wrote to the agent.
The exchange escalated quickly. Dudding detailed specific sexual acts he intended to perform and stated his goal was to “[h]ave a good time and sex.” To verify his intent, he sent a video of himself performing a sex act, instructing the “parent” to show it to the child. The two then moved their conversation to text messaging to discuss logistics, where Dudding confirmed plans to book a hotel room in Jacksonville for the encounter.
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Authorities noted that Dudding is a registered sex offender with a multi-state criminal record. His history includes a 2007 conviction in North Carolina for indecent liberty with a minor, a 2023 conviction in South Carolina for criminal solicitation of a minor, and a 2024 North Carolina conviction for solicitation of a child by computer.
He was arrested in North Carolina on May 8, 2025, and subsequently extradited to Jacksonville.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown prosecuted the case.
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