MAY 20, 2020

Lexington County Man Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - May 20, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of David Taylor Hawkins, 25, of Gaston, SC, on three charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, also a member of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

 

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Hawkins. Investigators state Hawkins encouraged a minor victim to produce and send sexually explicit images, solicited a minor victim to engage in sexual activity, and sent sexually explicit images to a minor victim.

 

Hawkins was arrested on May 14, 2020. He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; one count of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and one count of disseminating obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

 

The 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.

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