CHERAW, SC — A 15-year-old girl is facing multiple charges related to child pornography, officials say, after a failed scheme to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend.
On January 25th, Cheraw Police say the parents of several female victims filed complaints saying someone presenting themselves as a fellow male student at Cheraw High School was trying to solicit nude photos from their daughters on Snap Chat and Instagram.
Police say the suspect also sent the victims several images depicting a juvenile male’s genitalia. When the girls refused to provide nude photos of themselves, officials say the suspect began threatening and harassing the victims.
Investigators say they were eventually able to trace the messages back to a single address located in the City of Cheraw, and identified a 15-year-old girl as the primary suspect.
The teen confessed to creating multiple social media accounts that appeared to belong to her ex-boyfriend, detectives say, and using them to solicit nude photos from the victims. She also reportedly confessed to sending the victims photos of juvenile male genitalia.
When detectives asked why, police say she responded, “Revenge for their relationship ending, and also because she was jealous that her ex-boyfriend had been chosen to perform a solo in the State Finals for Band.”
The 15-year-old suspect will be charged in Family Court as a juvenile, police say, for multiple counts each of Possession of Child Pornography, Disseminating Child Pornography and Producing Child Pornography.
Her name is not being released due to age.
In a release sent out Friday afternoon, Cheraw Police said they are thankful for the “hundreds of hours” spent investigating this case and the help of SLED’s Computer Crimes Unit and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that allowed them to identify the suspect and “exonerate a young man who had been publicly accused of committing this crime.”
