Columbia Men Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Mark Cyril Mann, 33, and Chad Ryan Kelley, 39, of Columbia, S.C., on 15 total charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Mount Pleasant Police Department made the arrests in these unrelated cases.  Investigators with the Richland County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, and SLED, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators state Mann 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 person he believed to be a minor victim. Investigators state Kelley also solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex and engaged in sexually explicit communication with a person he believed to be a minor.

Mann was arrested on May 5th, 2022.  He is charged with nine counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; 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 dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

Mann was previously convicted on related charges in 2011.

Kelley was arrested on May 5th, 2022. 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 conspiracy to attempt to commit criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-17-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment; and one count of attempted promoting the prostitution of a minor (§16-15-415), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.

These cases 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.