South Carolina sports reporter arrested on child pornography charges

The attorney general’s office arrests a WACH-TV reporter on three counts of sexual exploitation…

A South Carolina sportscaster has been arrested and charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to a press release from the Palmetto State’s top prosecutor.

According to the South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson28 years old Matthew Turner Vereen – a sports reporter for WATCH TV-57 (FOX – Columbia, SC) – was arrested this week by agents of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. ICAC agents investigated Vereen with assistance from the Columbia, SC police department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special investigations unit (HSI).

“Detectives allege that Vereen distributed and possessed files containing child sexual abuse material,” Wilson’s office said in its press release.

Child sex abuse materials (or “CSAM”) is another term for child pornography. According to ICAC, the term “more accurately reflects the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes.”

“Pornography may imply that the child was a consenting participant,” the agency noted.

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According to the first of three probable cause affidavits accompanying Vereen’s arrest warrants, “a digital photograph was found on an Apple laptop belonging to (Vereen)” during the recent execution of a search warrant. The photograph depicted “an approximately 11 to 13 year old female in a sexually explicit state of nudity,” the affidavit said.

Another affidavit of probable cause accused Vereen of soliciting the purchase of “a one-minute, 32-second video” in which a 13-year-old girl “stands nude in front of a camera, exposing her bare breasts and vagina.” Yet another affidavit alleged that Vereen “solicited the purchase of a one-minute, 26-second video … in which (a 13-year-old girl) stands nude in a bathroom and twerks, exposing her bare breasts, vagina and anus.”

The statements claimed that Vereen could be identified through “Gmail data, Apple data, ISP data” and other digital markers.

Following Wilson’s release, Vereen was charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the second degree (§16-15-405) – a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison on each count – and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor in the third degree (§16-15-410), a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Like anyone accused of committing a crime, Vereen is presumed innocent until proven guilty by our criminal justice system — or until he agrees to some form of allocution in connection with a plea agreement with prosecutors regarding any of the charges brought against him.

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Vereen’s WACH Fox bio indicates that he grew up in Greenville, SC, where he played football in high school before attending journalism school at the University of Missouri. A former ESPN intern, Vereen previously reported at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri and was an anchor at KOLR-TV in Springfield, Missouri.

Vereen’s biography also describes him as a “supporter of local charities that help poor children play sports.”

Vereen’s case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office.

This is a developing story…

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THE COMMANDMENTS …

(Source)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Do people want is the owner and founder of FITSNews. Before starting his own news outlet, he was press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band, and a bouncer at a dive bar in Columbia, SC. ​​He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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