A North Augusta man is the latest suspect to be charged with possessing child sexual abuse materials in a crackdown by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
Joshua Bridges, 40, was arrested Monday on five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count. He was booked and then released on a personal recognizance bond per a magistrate judge’s order.
The charges stem from an investigation by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office that started last July. The child pornography files were allegedly downloaded while the suspect was at his residence on Rosemary Street in North Augusta, a warrant says.
Five warrants accuse Bridges of possessing files showing young Caucasian girls, between 8-14, in the nude. The girls are seen engaging in sexual acts with adult men or with other underage girls.
According to an arrest warrant, one of Bridges’ saved videos shows a nude girl between 8-11 years old, performing oral sex on a male. “The male can be heard telling the female to take her clothes off and stop crying,” according to the arrest warrant.
(Note: Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes, according to state officials. “Pornography” can imply the child was a consenting participant. Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.)
