Horry County man sentenced to 9 years for child pornography

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - April 10, 2019 – A registered sex offender from Horry County was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Harrold Nello Harris, represented by Jim Stanko, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Third Degree before the Honorable Benjamin H. Culbertson in Horry County.

In December of 2017, Harrold Nello Harris was taken into custody for a probation violation. He was a registered sex offender after being convicted of Lewd Act on a Minor in January 2017. The probation agent discovered child pornography on Harris’ phone and referred the case to Detective Mira Shaw with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office and the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Detective Shaw interviewed Harris and he confessed to receiving and exchanging child pornography files.  Det. Shaw then obtained a search warrant for the phone and found 10 child pornography files stored locally on the phone and over 1,000 files of child pornography in cloud storage in a Dropbox account belonging to Harris.

Judge Culbertson sentenced Harris to nine years in prison.

“This is a repeat offender who was already on probation, so we're glad he'll be off the streets," Attorney General Alan Wilson said. "Our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and law enforcement agencies work around the clock in every part of South Carolina to find these criminals and bring them to justice.”