Gilbert Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Nov. 23, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Christopher Jacob Barfield, 27, of Gilbert, S.C., on five charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Camden Police Department made the arrest.  Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, Kershaw County Sheriff's Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Secret Service, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators state Barfield solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex, traveled to meet a person he believed to be a minor for sex, encouraged them to produce child sexual abuse material and sent sexually explicit images to a minor victim.

Barfield was arrested on November 20, 2020. He is charged with one count of attempted criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-3-655); one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; and two counts 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.

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.