Cherokee County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of James Mitchell Wayne McAbee, 20, on 11 charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Charleston Police Department made the arrest. Investigators with the U.S. Marshals Service and Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation. 

Investigators state McAbee solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex, encouraged them to produce child sexual abuse material, sent sexually explicit images to a person he believed to be a minor, and encouraged a minor to engage in prostitution.

McAbee was arrested on April 8, 2024. He is charged with five counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment on each count; two counts of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; and one count of promoting the prostitution of a minor (§16-15-415(A)).

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. "Pornography" can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.