SEP 18, 2020

Horry County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Sept. 18, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Theodore Woolings Bye, III, 35, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on 26 charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Horry County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and  Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, and the Myrtle Beach Police Department, assisted with this case.

 

Investigators state Bye encouraged a minor victim to produce and send sexually explicit images and possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

 

Bye was arrested on September 17, 2020. He is charged with 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; and 13 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.

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