SC man on bail in Lancaster charged with sending child sex videos on internet, records show

LANCASTER COUNTY, SC A Lancaster County man on bail from previous charges is accused of sending child sex videos online using Instagram and Google social media, according to court records and arrest warrants. Samuel Wayne Flowers, 32, of Kershaw, was arrested Tuesday on two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of minors and one count of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor by Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office deputies, arrest warrants obtained by The Herald show. Deputies and federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security found that Flowers uploaded and distributed child sexual abuse material on social media platforms around Christmas 2021, warrants state. Flowers also had a child sex video on his cellphone Tuesday when he was arrested, according to warrants. The victims in the videos are children as young as age 4, warrants state. Second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor alleges distribution of illegal child sex videos or pictures, South Carolina law states. Third-degree sexual exploitation alleges possession of illegal child sex abuse material, state law shows. All three charges are felonies that carry up to 10 years in prison for each conviction, said Robert Kittle, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office. The cases will be prosecuted by the attorney general as part of South Carolina’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force, Kittle said. SUSPECT WAS FREE ON BAIL AT TIME OF ARREST: RECORDS Flowers was arrested Tuesday when deputies were executing a search warrant, said sheriff’s office spokesman Doug Barfield. Flowers was free on bail from arrests in 2019, 2020, and 2021 on charges of drugs violations and harassment, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Doug Barfield and South Carolina court records. Those cases remain pending in Lancaster County criminal court, records show.