October 22, 2018
On Friday, October 20, 2018 a Levy County Deputy responded
to a home in Fanning Springs when a parent found explicit conversations and
images on her 13 year old child’s tablet. The mother told the deputy she took
the tablet away from her daughter as a form of discipline and when looking
through the tablet found an application downloaded. The application “Google
Hangouts” wasn’t an application she approved her daughter to use. The mother found
a history of sexually explicit messages and images between her daughter and an
unidentified male.
LCSO Criminal Investigations responded to the scene to
complete the investigation. Investigator Mike McNeil interviewed the child who
admitted to communication with a person she met at Fanning Springs State Park.
This individual, whom she identified as 22 year old Dustin Norman of Fanning
Springs, added her as his friend through the “Hangouts” application and they
began talking. The child admitted to investigators she was involved in sexual
conversations with Norman.
Investigator McNeil located and interviewed Norman. Norman
admitted to being involved in a sexual relationship with the victim, admitted
he knew her age and admitted to sending nude photographs of him to her. Norman
was arrested and charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a
child, transmitting obscene images to a child and use of two way communications
to commit a felony. He is being held at the Levy County Detention Facility in
lieu of a $250,000.00 bond.
The use of the internet and the multitude of ways it allows
people to communicate are dangerous and confusing. Children often do not
understand predators constantly look for ways to communicate with new potential
victims. Sheriff McCallum urges parents to faithfully monitor their children’s internet
use and social media presence to avoid crimes such as this. If the parent in this case had not been vigilant
in the supervision of her daughter this situation could have had more severe lifelong
consequences. I applaud this parent in her efforts to protect her daughter and
for her willingness to report this situation so that other children may be
protected from this suspect as well, said Sheriff McCallum.