James Austen Gillespie, 33, of Lexington, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to production of child sex abuse materials. *

Evidence presented to the court showed that on July 11, 2021, Gillespie used his cellphone to edit himself into two compromising images of a nude minor child.

United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Mr. Gillespie to 180 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system. Mr. Gillespie was ordered to pay a total of $25,000 in restitution to his victims and to register as a sex offender.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Matthews prosecuted the case.