A 64-year-old Greenville County man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after confessing to sexually abusing two 12-year-old victims. Danny Thomas Watson pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual misconduct with a minor, a plea tied to reports the two children filed in September 2025 alleging he had abused them.
According to WYFF News 4, the Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor's Office confirmed Watson entered his guilty plea this week. The station reports the victims were both 12 years old when they came forward with allegations against Watson in Greenville County last September.
The Greenville County Sheriff's Office investigated the case, per the same report. Beyond the plea and sentencing, the station's coverage does not detail how the investigation unfolded or what led the two children to report the abuse.
Lifetime Monitoring and Registry Requirements
Watson's sentence comes with consequences that will follow him well beyond his prison term. The station's report states that Watson will register as a sex offender, be placed on South Carolina's Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect, and be subject to lifetime GPS monitoring.
A bill proposed a framework for that kind of electronic tracking. Under H. 3405, which was residing in the House, the South Carolina Legislature proposed language saying a monitored individual shall be tracked by the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services using an active electronic-monitoring device for the duration specified under the proposed language.
South Carolina law separately defines what counts as an approved monitoring device. Per the state's code governing law enforcement and public safety, an active electronic-monitoring device can be a body-worn or non-body-worn device, or even a mobile-phone application, so long as it is approved by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and can record or transmit information about a person's location, activities, and surroundings, and report that location in a timely manner, according to South Carolina Legislature Online.
Who the Registry Law Covers
South Carolina's sex-offender registry statute applies broadly. The relevant section of the state code says any person residing in South Carolina, regardless of age, who has been convicted of, pleaded guilty to, or pleaded nolo contendere to an offense described under the law is covered by its registration requirements, according to the South Carolina Legislature's published code. The excerpt available does not list every offense the registry provision covers.
