This York Co. man smoked meth, made child porn, shared videos. Then the FBI found out
Darrell Henry Adam of York County used a fake name then got high on meth as he made child porn videos before sharing the footage, police say.
Adam now faces federal and South Carolina charges that add up to life in prison, if he is convicted.
Adam, 28, of Shady Pond Drive in Lake Wylie, is charged with using an 8-year-old boy in creating child pornography, federal documents unsealed this week show.
Adam made the porn videos then distributed it, according to federal indictments in US. District Court.
The federal charges range up to 40 years in prison each for convictions.
There are 20 pending South Carolina charges against Adams that came after a police searched his home in May. Those charges would carry a total of over 200 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.
Adam was arrested May 24 and taken to the York County jail where he was charged with 20 South Carolina felony charges that each carry at least 10 years in prison, according to documents.
Police were alerted by a complainant who called the FBI on May 22 to say he had seen child porn videos at Adam’s Lake Wylie home three days earlier. The man told FBI agents he had met Adam days earlier on a dating app, court records show.
Adam used an alias online where he called himself “Isaiah,” records show.
The man told officers Adam sent him a video showing Adam in a sex act with a male child, police said in a federal affidavit. Adam told the man he gives the minor child drugs during the sex acts, records show.
On May 24, an FBI agent and York County Sheriff’s Office detectives served a search warrant on Adam. Inside the home, officers found a video of children “crying” on a large flat screen television, police said.
Deputies found child porn videos involving Adam and the child on a computer and cellphone, according to the federal affidavit.
Adam told officers he regularly downloaded child porn videos and used both his computer and phone to watch, make and send child porn while smoking meth at his home, according to court documents.
Adam is charged in York County with 16 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, felony child abuse, disseminating obscene material to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual assault.
Trent Faris, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said the FBI is handling the cases against Adam.
Efforts to obtain comment from federal officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia that is prosecuting Adam were unsuccessful.
Adam is being held at the York County jail without bond on both the state and federal charges, according to jail records and a federal court order. He is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 21 on the federal charges.
Andrew Dys: 803-329-4065, @AndrewDysHerald
This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 1:27 PM.