Dallas man arrested in undercover PTC sting

A Fayette County jury has convicted a Dallas, Ga. man for sending computer porn to an undercover Peachtree City police officer who he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

Douglas Selfe was found guilty of one count of violation of the computer child and pornography act and one count of obscene internet contact. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by another 10 years on probation by Fayette Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English.

During trial, the jury witnessed graphic video footage from a webcam that showed Selfe first exposing his genitalia and later masturbating.

When the webcam popped up on the undercover officer’s screen, she and Selfe were have a discussion about the fact that she was actually 15 and not 20 as she had indicated on her profile on another web site. The chat did not take place on that web site, called “Adult Friend Finder” but instead occurred via the MSN instant messaging service.

The officer, who posed as a girl named April, testified that Selfe first made contact with her via e-mail after she posted her e-mail address in the Adult Friend Finder forum. At the time, she was working a similar investigation on another suspect.

Defense attorney Paul Liston questioned why the transcript of the first instant messaging contact between Selfe and the officer wasn’t available. The officer said she had a computer glitch that caused the document to go missing.

But it wasn’t until their second and third online instant messaging conversations that Selfe exposed his genitalia, the officer testified.