PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Harry Dallas, 44, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was convicted today at trial of manufacturing child pornography, specifically, videorecording himself engaged in sex acts with an underage girl.In June 2023, in Center City, Dallas, then 40 years old, encountered a runaway teenager, who had been reported missing from her home state for several weeks. The evidence at trial established that the 15-year-old girl had no money or shelter, a situation that Dallas used to his advantage. Dallas drove the minor to his home in Northeast Philadelphia, where he sexually abused her over the course of several days and filmed videos of himself and the minor engaged in various sex acts. He also took photos of her, including one that depicted the girl while fully nude and asleep.Dallas used a cellphone to film the videos and take the explicit photos. In 2024, FBI Philadelphia executed a search warrant on Dallas’ cloud-based account, which revealed the videos and images Dallas had taken of the minor in June 2023.The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on June 8 and faces a maximum possible term of 90 years in prison.This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.gov.The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Justin Ashenfelter and Amanda McCool.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice