South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has announced the arrest of Brittany Nicole Marie Tomberlin, a 30-year-old resident of Gaston, South Carolina. Tomberlin faces one charge related to the sexual exploitation of minors. The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, part of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, carried out the arrest with assistance from investigators in the Attorney General’s Office.
The investigation began after authorities received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). According to investigators, Tomberlin is accused of distributing files containing child sexual abuse material.
Tomberlin was taken into custody on September 23, 2025. She has been charged with one count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor under South Carolina law (ยง16-15-405), which is classified as a felony and carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
The Attorney General’s Office will prosecute this case. In his statement, Attorney General Wilson emphasized that “all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.”
A note included in the announcement explained that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is now used as a more accurate term than “child pornography,” since “pornography” may suggest consent by the minor involved. The global shift toward using CSAM reflects an effort to better describe these crimes.
