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

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - May 6, 2021 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Derrell Timothy Coates, 31, of Lugoff, S.C., on four charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security Investigations, both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators state Coates solicited 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.

Coates was arrested on April 30, 2021. He is charged with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; 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 attempted 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.