Pickens County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Joseph Henry Nix, 37, of Liberty, SC, on five charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Oconee County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, also a member of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Nix. Investigators state Nix distributed and possessed files of child sexual abuse material, and engaged in criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Nix was arrested on August 25, 2022. He is charged with one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, third degree (§16-3-655).

While in jail, Nix was served with additional arrest warrants on August 26, 2022. He is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; and three 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.

The 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.