A Sanford man has been sentenced to a significant prison term following his guilty plea in a case involving the exploitation of minors. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Matthew Reed Dione, age 37, will spend the next 20 years in federal prison for the crime of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. In addition to his incarceration, Dione must forfeit two hard drives and a cell phone, facilitating his offenses. U.S. District Judge Carlos E. Mendoza handed down the sentencing.
Court documents revealed that Dione, who was 32 at the time, initially encountered the child victim on a teen dating website. After engaging in inappropriate chats, Dione picked up the victim from their home late at night, a place where they should have been safe, and took them to his residence. Over the years, he sexually abused the child victim and documented these crimes digitally. In a raid conducted by the FBI in January 2023, investigators discovered a trove of child sexual abuse material, including numerous videos and images bearing the minors with Dione's name scribbled on their bodies.
The investigation, spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, uncovered that Dione had been targeting teenage girls for over a decade. Upon analyzing the material found during the search of Dione's home, authorities were able to identify three additional victims from the evidence on his devices. Assistant United States Attorney Courtney D. Richardson-Jones prosecuted the case, bringing some measure of justice to the affected parties.
