Palmetto State News

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Christian Ryan Shumpert, 25, of West Columbia, S.C., and Troy Michael Curtis, 34, of Fountain Inn, S.C. on 14 total charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Beaufort Police Department made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, Mount Pleasant Police Department, and Charleston Police Department, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations. 

 Investigators state Shumpert and Curtis solicited people they believed to be minors for sex, encouraged them to produce child sexual abuse material, and sent sexually explicit images to people they believed to be minors.

 Shumpert was arrested on July 5, 2023. He is charged with three counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; three counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment on each count; and one count of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

 Curtis was arrested on July 5, 2023. He is charged with three counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count; one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; and three counts of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

 Shumpert was still in custody from a prior arrest on related charges in 2022.

 Curtis was still in custody from a prior arrest on related charges in 2022.

 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.

Original source can be found here