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ST. GEORGE — A registered sex offender who attempted to entice a teenage girl has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Dane Bowler, 43, of Veyo, Washington County, was convicted of coercion and enticement after attempting to engage in sexual acts with a minor. He was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
In November 2023, Bowler communicated with an individual he thought was a 13-year-old and made arrangements to meet up with her for sexual acts. He had instead been communicating with an undercover cop, who arrested Bowler at the meetup location, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah said.
Bowler's arrest was part of an FBI sting operation that led to the detainment of five people.
"Bowler had been previously convicted of this very same offense in federal court in 2007 and was sentenced to 60 months of jail time and five years of supervised release in that case," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
The case was investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force as part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative.
