LOGAN — A 40-year-old South Jordan man has been arrested for allegedly trying to meet up with a 9 year old girl in Logan to have sex, according to law enforcement. Joseph Thomas Dunlop was booked Friday, March 29, into the Cache County Jail after reportedly admitting to molesting a 1-year-old girl.
According to an arrest affidavit, Dunlop began messaging the Logan City undercover officer on March 26. The officer was posing as the father of a young girl on an internet forum related to incest.
The officer allegedly received a message from Dunlop, expressing a desire to meet for the purpose of sexually abusing the supposed 9 year old girl. He reportedly described and discussed specific details, including formulating a plan of meeting to perform certain illegal acts.
As the messages continued, Dunlop described to the undercover officer how he had molested a 1 year old girl multiple times, describing the abuse in detail. He also offered to bring the baby girl with him to Logan, so that he could sexually abuse both girls, the probable cause statement detailed.
Police report, Dunlop also sent a video of a young girl between 5 to 7 years old being raped by an adult male.
Friday, Dunlop had planned to meet at a predetermined location but never showed. He also stopped messaging the undercover officer, court papers explained.
Due to concerns that a young girl might be in danger, police were able to secure an expedited warrant, to obtain the IP address of the chats. The messages tracked to Dunlop’s home, where police served a warrant to the residence and located a 1 year old girl.
Dunlop was taken into custody for questioning. He allegedly admitted to chatting with the officer about meeting up to sexually abuse the 9 year old girl. He also confessed to sending police child pornography, which he claimed to viewing 50 to 60 times in the past few months, the PC statement described.
Dunlop also told police how he had sexually abused the 1 year old girl multiple times. He said, “children are not safe around him,” the arresting officer reported.
According to court records, Dunlop made an initial appearance Monday in Logan’s 1st District Court. He was charged with three counts of sodomy on a child, aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, all first-degree felonies.
Judge Angela Fonnesbeck ordered Dunlop to remain in jail, held without bail. She also assigned him a public defender and ordered him to appear again in court April 10.
Dunlop didn’t speak during the hearing, he could face up to life in prison. Additional charges in Salt Lake County are pending.