Lancaster man guilty of child porn on Snapchat social media. He’s going to prison
A Lancaster man who targeted young girls in Georgia and Virginia with sexual pictures via Snapchat social media has been sentenced to seven years in a South Carolina prison.
Damien James Clark, 27, pleaded guilty Monday in Lancaster County criminal court to second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and threatening a public official, according to court records and Robert Kittle, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
Clark was living in Lancaster in 2018 when he coerced a 14-year-old girl from Waycross, Ga., to send him a nude picture via Snapchat, according to prosecutors and court documents. He then sent sexual pictures of himself to the girl, documents show.
Clark uploaded images of child pornography from Facebook, and threatened and harassed a 16-year-old Virginia girl over Snapchat by sending child porn to the victim, Kittle said.
Second-degree child exploitation of a minor involves sharing videos and photos, under South Carolina law.
Clark was arrested by Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office deputies and prosecuted by the attorney general’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force. Law enforcement received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that showed the online porn, documents show.
Clark has been in jail since his arrest in September 2018. While incarcerated at the Lancaster County Detention Center awaiting court, Clark threatened to kill a jail officer and the officer’s family and was found with an illegal weapon in his cell, Kittle said.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Bill McKinnon of York County sentenced Clark. Clark must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life after he serves his prison term, court records show.
