West Virginia Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child While Serving Abroad
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Dustin Stover Bowles, 42, of Hurricane in Putnam County, West Virginia, was sentenced on October 19 to 30 years in prison, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release, for aggravated sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, the Justice Department announced. Bowles must also register as a sex offender. A federal jury convicted Bowles on April 17, 2026, following a four-day trial. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between September and December 2006, Bowles sexually abused an 8-year-old girl he knew while babysitting her at his home. At the time, he was on active duty with the Army stationed in Hanau, Germany. The victim disclosed the abuse in 2020 to several trusted adults and to Army criminal investigators, and Bowles was charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. At trial, three additional victims testified that Bowles had sexually abused them while they were asleep, including one who was a minor at the time. The FBI and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. Trial Attorney Eduardo Palomo of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald for the Southern District of West Virginia prosecuted the case. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Moore Capito for the Southern District of West Virginia, and Assistant Director Heith Janke of the FBI's Criminal Division.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于Huntington的Cabell County法院（资料照片）。JaGa摄，CC BY-SA 4.0授权图片，经Wikimedia Commons发布。
