Palmetto State News

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Casey Royce Watts, 30, of North Augusta, S.C., on five charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Secret Service, Aiken Department of Public Safety, and Edgefield County Sheriff's Office, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation.

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

 Watts was arrested on July 6, 2023. 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.

 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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