Man who ran `sex dungeon' gets 215 years for assaulting children

A 32-year-old man who perpetrated sexual assaults spanning more than a decade, targeting almost 20 girls in Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, was sentenced Thursday to more than 215 years in state prison.

Morgan Delos Fowler of Lake Elsinore pleaded guilty in June to 18 felony counts, including forcible rape of a minor, lewd acts on a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and forcible sodomy, along with sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting multiple victims in a sex crime.

In exchange for his admissions, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office dropped 39 related charges.

During a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley, Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer certified the terms of the plea agreement and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.

According to a sheriff’s bail-setting affidavit filed shortly after Fowler’s arrest in August 2019, the defendant operated a “sex dungeon in his garage, with weapons throughout the house.”

“The suspect knows where all … victims live and had been physical with them, causing them to fear for their safety,” the document stated.

The investigation into Fowler’s offenses was prompted by an anonymous tip that he was distributing child pornography. Initially, deputies confirmed three girls had been assaulted by the defendant. However, in the ensuing months, detectives identified a total of 18 victims.

The criminal complaint states that Fowler assaulted victims in the bedroom of his home, at a comic book store and in his bathroom shower after one of the girls had used his pool. The assaults occurred between 2007 and 2018, and the victims’ ages ranged from preteen to late teens, according to court papers.

It was unclear how Fowler met the victims and gained their trust.