A Mississippi man has been locked up in Tennessee after trying to arrange a meetup for sex with a child in Chattanooga.
According to police, 49-year-old Dennis Allen Gaal was attempting to schedule a mid-December birthday trip to sexually assault an infant at a hotel in the south-central Tennessee city. In reality, Gaal was communicating with an undercover FBI agent on the Telegram app.
WTVC in Chattanooga reports that Gaal told the undercover agent that he was a contract chef for an offshore hiring company and that he was seeking out the sexual company of children of all ages up to 12 years old. He also admitted to being a sex offender.
After conversing through the messaging app about a possible meetup with a 10-month-old, Gaal told the agent that he would love to “play” sexually with the child and that it would be a “dream come true.” The two exchanged phone numbers to set a date for an in-person encounter.
The FBI, after confirming Gaal’s identity via his phone number, was able to conduct a background check on the suspect, which revealed that he had previously faced legal repercussions for molesting a child he babysat in 2000.
Gaal’s alleged sexual abuse against children began with him molesting his two-month-old nephew until the boy turned five. The child predator told the agent that he had violated three boys and would typically touch them inappropriately while they were awake.
The undercover agent and Gaal remained in communication and ultimately settled upon a meet-up with the infant at the Hotel Chalet in Chattanooga on Monday, December 11 — the suspect’s 49th birthday.
Prior to the scheduled encounter, Gaal is said to have sent the agent an image of five infant outfits, along with a toy that he had for the child.
Gaal arrived at the hotel on Monday and was met by agents who took him into custody and booked him into jail. He is charged with child rape as well as two counts of solicitation of a minor.
