American Fork man arrested in FBI child exploitation sting

An American Fork man was arrested in an FBI sting Monday after agents say he thought he had arranged to meet up with a father to sexually abuse his two young children.

An American Fork man was arrested in an FBI sting Monday after agents say he thought he had arranged to meet up with a father to sexually abuse his two young children. (Dzelat, Shutterstock)


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LEHI — An American Fork man was arrested Monday after police say he traveled to Lehi to meet up with a father he thought would allow him to sexually abuse his two young sons.

But when George Washington Paulin III, 64, arrived at the designated meeting location, he was met by members of the FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and was arrested.

Starting in April, Paulin used an undisclosed app and "was communicating with someone who was believed to be the father of the 7- and 9-year-old boys," a police booking affidavit states. In reality, he was messaging an undercover agent.

During their conversations, Paulin sent the undercover agent messages such as, "My family doesn't believe in incest, but I do. I also believe in no age limit," the affidavit states.

Paulin also sent the undercover agent "numerous videos" of child sex abuse material, investigators say. The two agreed to meet Monday in Lehi so Paulin could abuse the two children, according to the affidavit. He was arrested shortly after arriving.

Investigators learned after taking Paulin into custody that he had sexually abused an actual child in the past, the affidavit alleges. He was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of three counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of enticing a minor and two counts of sodomy on a child.

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Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.

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