Columbia Man Arrested on Criminal Solicitation of a Minor and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Justin Thomas Steadman, 41, of Columbia, S.C., on seven charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington Police Department made the arrest.  

Investigators state Steadman solicited and 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 material to a person he believed to be a minor.

Steadman was arrested on February 27, 2024. 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 criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-3-655(B)(1)); three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment on each count; and two counts of dissemination of obscene material to a person under the age of 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.