A North Carolina man with a 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.
Geoffrey Lee Dudding, 40, of Concord, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger. He was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release. Dudding had previously entered a guilty plea on October 28, 2025.
The investigation began on January 13, 2025, when an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville, Florida, set up 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.
According to federal prosecutors, Dudding, using the screen name “metalh34d321,” initiated a private conversation with the undercover agent and expressed explicit sexual interest in the fictitious child. Despite being told the child was 11 years old and located in Florida, Dudding continued his communications, detailing the sexual acts he intended to perform. He even sent a video of himself committing a sex act, instructing the “parent” to show it to the child, and later discussed hotel logistics for the encounter.
Authorities noted that Dudding is a registered sex offender with a multi-state criminal record, including:
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A 2007 conviction in North Carolina for indecent liberty with a minor
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A 2023 conviction in South Carolina for criminal solicitation of a minor
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A 2024 conviction in North Carolina for solicitation of a child via computer
Dudding was arrested in North Carolina on May 8, 2025, and extradited to Jacksonville for prosecution.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, and the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Rodney Brown handled the prosecution.