Charleston man charged with distributing child abuse material

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of William Robert Rattazzi, 73, of Charleston, S.C., on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. Investigators with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force made the arrest. Investigators from the Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, Charleston Police Department and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, all of whom are also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted in the investigation.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that led them to Rattazzi. Investigators say Rattazzi was distributing files containing child sexual abuse material.

Rattazzi was arrested on August 29, 2024. He is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office. Attorney General Wilson emphasized that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

“Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM,” Wilson said, “is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. ‘Pornography’ can imply that the child was a consenting participant.” Worldwide, the term child pornography is being replaced with CSAM for this reason.