(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Jan. 25, 2021 — South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Jesse Pierce Gipson,  24, 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 North Augusta Department of Public Safety made the arrest. Investigators with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office and Attorney General’s Office, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

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

Gipson was arrested on January 22, 2021. 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.