Laurens County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Feb. 5, 2021 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Michael Vaughn Ellison, 52, of Mountville, S.C., on 20 charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Laurens County Sheriff's Office, also a member of the state's ICAC Task Force, as well as the Boone (N.C.) Police Department, a member of the N.C. ICAC Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a member of the Task Force in both states, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators state Ellison possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

Ellison was arrested on February 4, 2021. He is charged with 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), 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.