(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – July 24, 2020 – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Robert E. Turner, 59, of Belton, S.C., on 14 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 Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), United States Secret Service, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, all also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation and arrest.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Turner. Investigators state Turner possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

Turner was arrested on July 23, 2020. He is charged with 14 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. Turner is a registered sex offender (from a 1999 charge) currently out on bond and awaiting prosecution on related CSAM charges from 2018.

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.