Roswell man who kept teen for weeks, filmed sex acts with her, sentenced to 17 years in prison
Derrick Hunt, 39, of Roswell sentenced to prison for producing child pornography in 2012.
ATLANTA - A Roswell man convicted of child pornography after prosecutors say he held a 13-year-old girl for three weeks back in 2012 received his prison sentence this week.
Derrick Hunt, 39, was sentenced to 17 years and 6 months in prison after pleading guilty in May. Upon release from prison, he will be under supervised release for the remainder of his life.
According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, on June 18, 2012 Hunt saw the 13-year-old posting on Facebook about wanting to runaway from her family home. Although Hunt was aware of her age, officials say he agreed to pick her up. He took the girl to his apartment in Roswell where he provided her with alcohol, marijuana and opioids.
"Hunt assaulted a vulnerable young girl by plying her with drugs and alcohol in order to sexually abuse her," says U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. "Sexual predators use every opportunity, including leveraging social media platforms, to lure children into these kinds of exploitive situations. The experience of this victim and her family is the kind of nightmare scenario for unsuspecting parents that we encourage citizens to try to avoid through vigilant monitoring of their children’s social media activities."
Over the next three weeks, prosecutors allege Hunt performed numerous sexual acts on the 13-year-old, many of them while she was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. All of the acts took place in Hunt's living room where he set up a camera to record himself with the child.
On July 7, 2012 officials say Hunt arranged for the girl's father to pick her up from a restaurant. Hunt, however, was not aware that the child's father had also called for police to be present. Hunt was arrested at 2:30 a.m. while dropping off the victim.
Hunt was initially charged with child molestation offenses in Fulton County before being released on bond and fleeing the state. The U.S. Attorney's Office then obtained a federal warrant for his arrest for production of child pornography via a criminal complaint. Hunt was found and arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 30, 2019. He was using an alias.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a program launched in February 2006. The nationwide initiative is designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse online. It is led by the United States Attorney's Offices around the country.
"Predators like Hunt have no place in civilized society. Their victims, in this case a 13-year-old girl, will likely never fully recover from the abuse they endured," said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. "Our warning to predators is that the FBI will go to great lengths to protect our most vulnerable citizens from those who seek to manipulate and do them harm."