Former Law Enforcement Officer Arrested for the Sexual Exploitation of Children

Canton, GA (November 10, 2020) – On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, former Forsyth County Chief Deputy Grady Sanford, age 56, was arrested and charged with two counts of distribution of child pornography following a search warrant executed at 209 Windsor Green Court, Canton, Georgia. An investigation into Sanford’s internet activity by the GBI’s CEACC Unit began after a report was received from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on November 6, 2020, indicating child sexual abuse images had been uploaded to the Internet using a popular email platform. The IP address that was used to log into the email platform physically resolved to the above address in Canton, Georgia. 

Sanford was booked into the Cherokee County Jail.

This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child pornography trade. The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.

Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870.