Upstate men arrested on 17 Child Sexual Abuse Material* charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Harrison Todd Dawson, 19, of Anderson, S.C., and Andrew Paul Varnadore, 46, of Greer, S.C., on 17 total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office and Greenville County Sheriff's Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, Anderson Police Department, and S.C. Department of Probation, Pardon, and Parole, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which led them to Dawson and Varnadore. Investigators state Dawson possessed files of child sexual abuse material, and Varnadore distributed files of child sexual abuse material.  

Dawson was arrested on March 17, 2026. He is charged with 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.

Varnadore was arrested on March 17, 2026. He is charged with 14 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.

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.