(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Jeremy Scott Bentley, 20, of Richburg, S.C., on three charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, Chester County Sheriff’s Office, and U.S. Secret Service, all also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation.
Investigators state Bentley solicited and engaged in criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and encouraged a minor to produce child sexual abuse material*.
Bentley was arrested on May 16, 2023. He is charged with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-3-655(B)(1)); and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.
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.
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