Attorney General Alan Wilson announces Lancaster Co. man sentenced to 18 years for Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor and other charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that a Lancaster County man was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Criminal Sexual Conduct, Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, and Assault and Battery charges.

On March 5, 2024, Seth Headley pleaded guilty to two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor, 2^nd degree, two counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, 1^st degree, and one count of Assault & Battery, 2^nd degree in Lancaster County before the Honorable Donald Hocker.

On January 30, 2023, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation of criminal sexual conduct with a minor after a minor and his grandmother came into the Sheriff’s office to file a report. Through the investigation, it was determined that suspect Seth Headley, age 32, was engaged in sexual activity with two minors, who were 17 and 14 at the time. The first victim’s grandmother reported that on July 4, 2021, the 16-year-old victim had run away in North Carolina and was picked up by Headley, whom he had met briefly and then chatted with on social media for a couple of months. The defendant then took him to Charlotte and later Lancaster County. The victim reported that the defendant had taken him to California and Florida and given him gifts in exchange for performing sex acts with the defendant. He also reported Headley making pornographic videos with children and providing money to make this material. Law enforcement was also told that there were additional minors at the defendant’s location, one of whom was being used for sex with the defendant, as well as the making of pornographic videos.

On February 10, 2023, a search warrant was executed and multiple electronic devices, including an iPhone, were seized. A forensic examination of the iPhone located approximately 435 videos and 1,101 images in a keep-safe account. This content included several videos and images of the minor victims appearing in diapers, onesies, and in states of sexually explicit nudity, as well as pictures and videos of the defendant engaging in sex with the minor victims.  

When law enforcement executed that search warrant on the camper where the defendant was living, a 14-year-old minor was living there with him. That victim reported that the defendant had been a family friend and he had begun living in the camper to escape the tensions in his own household. The 14-year-old reported that shortly after beginning to stay in the camper, the defendant began propositioning him for sex. He disclosed the defendant had been engaging in sexual activity with him since he was 13, but he was told he couldn’t tell anyone since it was illegal, and they would all get in trouble. He also reported the defendant buying him things, as well as the defendant recording the sexual encounters he had with the minor so he could watch them back later.

While incarcerated on these offenses, Headley broke a pair of glasses and attacked a correctional officer with them causing lacerations to the officer’s head and neck, which is what led to the assault charge.

Judge Hocker sentenced Headley to 18 years in prison. He will have to register as a sex offender upon his release. 

The Attorney General would like to thank Inv. Shane Black, Inv. Paul Lyons, Inv. Sarah Williamson and others with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office for all of their hard work on this case. They worked tirelessly and showed up to speak at every court hearing, including the plea on Tuesday.