(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Jan. 8, 2021 – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Tim Daniel Gilbert, 56, and Jeffrey Barrett Howe, 44, both of Elgin, S.C., on seven total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General’s Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office, Camden Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Secret Service, all also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators state Gilbert distributed and Howe possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.

Gilbert was arrested on January 6, 2021. 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. 

Howe was arrested on January 6, 2021. He is charged with five 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.

Both of 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.