Fairfield County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - July 17, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Mark Gregory Koch, 55, of Winnsboro, S.C., on three charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General's Office made the arrest. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office, both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation and arrest.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Koch. Investigators state Koch possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

Koch was arrested on July 16, 2020. He is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

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.