Federal authorities have arrested James Benjamin Gosnell, Jr., a 68-year-old Charleston County magistrate, on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material. According to a criminal complaint, agents from Homeland Security Investigations acted on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding financial transactions linked to a known distributor of such material in the United Kingdom. The transactions were traced back to an online money transfer account associated with Gosnell’s phone number, address, and email, occurring in November 2024.
Agents executed a search warrant at Gosnell’s residence, where they found a flash drive containing numerous videos and images depicting child sexual abuse. The materials included explicit content involving prepubescent minors, infants, and toddlers.
Gosnell was taken into custody and is scheduled for arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Molly Cherry on Wednesday morning.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.”
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Orville, Whit Sowards, and Emily Limehouse are handling prosecution.
Authorities remind that all charges in a criminal complaint are accusations; defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
The term “child pornography” appears in federal statutes but is being replaced by “child sexual abuse material,” which more accurately describes the nature of the crime and its impact on victims.
