South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has announced the arrest of William Franz Mcbride, Jr., (age 33) of Pelion. He was arrested on two charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department made the arrest. Investigators with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, also a member 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 Mcbride. Investigators state Mcbride distributed files of child sexual abuse material.

Mcbride was arrested on December 14, 2022. He is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

The 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.