Bourbon County Man Sentenced for Production of Child Pornography

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A Paris, Ky., man, Timothy Ray Dale, 64, was sentenced on Tuesday to 360 months by U.S. District Judge Robert Wier for the production of child pornography.

According to his plea agreement, on October 30, 2023, a witness reported to law enforcement that there were explicit images of minors located on Dale's phone. Law enforcement searched the device and found more than 50 sexually explicit visual depictions of two minor victims that were captured between September 30, 2023, and October 29, 2023. Dale admitted, that on two or more occasions, he used minor victims to produce explicit depictions of child pornography.

Under federal law, Dale must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for fifteen years.

Jason Parman, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Olivia Olson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; Chief Mark Burden, Paris Police Department; and Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, Paris Police Department, and Kentucky State Police. The Commonwealth Attorney's Office for the 14^th Judicial Circuit also provided significant assistance to the investigation and prosecution of the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Melton is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted this case 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 U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 https://www.projectsafechildhood.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

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