South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced, Wednesday, that a registered sex offender from Lexington County is going to prison for seven years after committing another offense.

On Tuesday, Michael Dwayne Elkin pleaded guilty in Lexington County to one count of Attempted Dissemination of Obscene Material to a Minor age 12 and under.

On February 8, 2022, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department received a case referral from law enforcement in Pontiac, Illinois. An officer in Illinois had been posing as a 12-year-old child on the internet and a registered sex offender from South Carolina, Elkin, reached out to the undercover persona.

After learning that the minor was 12 years old, Elkin sent the undercover persona a nude image of himself. He then requested to see images of the minor’s body and images of her engaging in sexual activity. The Lexington Sheriff’s Department obtained subscriber information for Elkin’s account, which led investigators back to his residence in Lexington County. A subsequent forensic examination of Elkin’s cell phone located the images from the illegal conversations.

Judge Carmen Mullen sentenced Elkin to seven years at the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He will receive credit for 2 days in jail and he will be required to continue to register as a sex offender.