National hotline tip leads SC authorities to charge man with making, sharing child porn
A Lancaster County man has been charged with making child pornography and then sharing the illegal content on the Internet, South Carolina police say.
Billy Gene Pressley, 55, of Kershaw, was arrested Thursday by Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office deputies, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Doug Barfield.
Pressley faces as many as 140 years in prison if convicted of all 13 charges.
Pressley is charged with one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of children for allegedly producing child porn, said Robert Kittle, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
The charge carries up to 20 years in prison for a conviction under South Carolina law.
Pressley also faces two counts of second-degree child exploitation after sharing videos and pictures online, according to court documents.
He faces another 10 charges of third-degree child sexual exploitation for possessing multiple files of child porn when he was arrested, according to records. The second-degree and third-degree charges each carry up to 10 years in prison for each charge if convicted.
Documents show that Pressley was arrested after an investigation by deputies from both Lancaster and York counties, and federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to the investigation and arrest, prosecutors said.
The York and Lancaster deputies and federal agents, are part of the attorney general’s office Internet Crimes Against Children task force that targets offenses involving child victims.
Earlier this week, an investigation by the same task force led to a seven-month prison sentence for another Lancaster man who shared child porn online.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 7:28 PM with the headline "National hotline tip leads SC authorities to charge man with making, sharing child porn."
