Grant County Sentenced for Attempted Enticement of a Minor and Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

COVINGTON, Ky. - A Crittenden, Ky., man, Robert Luke Divine, 30, was sentenced on Friday to 235 months by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning for attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and distribution of child pornography.

According to his plea agreement, on January 15, 2025, the Boone County Sheriff's Department conducted a sting operation and Divine showed up to a hotel for the purpose of having sex with a woman and her 14-year-old daughter. When deputies arrested him, Divine admitted why he was there and that he had child pornography on his cell phone. Law enforcement searched his electronic devices (including an Apple iPad) and found a trove of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including evidence that Divine traded CSAM with another person via Telegram in December 2024. Divine's iPad contained 335 videos and thousands of images of child sexual abuse material, including files that depicted bestiality and minors under the age of 12.

Under federal law, Divine must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 20 years.

Jason Parman, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Colin Jackson, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Les K. Hill, Boone County Sheriff, announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the HSI and Boone County Sheriff's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elaine Leonhard is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

This case was prosecuted 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 U.S. 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 https://www.projectsafechildhood.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

- END -