South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Maria Grace Seipel, (age 21) of Lexington, on five charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington Police Department made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Secret Service, all also members 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 Seipel. Investigators state Seipel engaged in criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and distributed and possessed files of child sexual abuse material.

Seipel was arrested on May 22. She is charged with one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree (§16-3-655(A)(1)); three 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; and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

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.