Columbia man used Internet at York County business for sharing child porn, cops say
A Columbia man has been charged with using the Internet at a York County store to share child porn, deputies said.
Samuel Lester Coffey, 48, is charged with three counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to arrest warrants obtained by The Herald.
Coffey is accused of using the Wi-Fi from a store business on U.S. 21 to share child pornography photos, warrants state. The children in the photos were as young as age 8, the warrants state.
York County Sheriff’s Office deputies said in police documents Coffey used the wireless address from the store near Fort Mill close to Interstate 77, Carowinds and the North Carolina state line to send the photos online.
Deputies have not released why Coffey was using the York County store Internet for child porn.
A conviction for second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor carries two to 10 years in prison for each conviction, South Carolina law shows.
South Carolina law defines second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor as anyone who “distributes, transports, exhibits, receives, sells, purchases, exchanges, or solicits material that contains a visual representation of a minor engaged in sexual activity or appearing in a state of sexually explicit nudity when a reasonable person would infer the purpose is sexual stimulation.”
Coffey has two sets of pending charges from arrests for sexual exploitation charges in Richland County near Columbia in 2018 and 2019, South Carolina court records show.
All the cases against Coffey are being prosecuted by the S.C. Attorney General’s office under the Internet Crimes Against Children task force program, according to court records.
Coffey is being held at the York County jail without bail.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 2:48 PM.
