A 28-year-old Williamston man is facing 10 felony charges after investigators say he possessed and shared files containing child sexual abuse material. Michael Steven Winiecki was arrested Thursday by Anderson County Sheriff’s Office investigators, according to officials, on nine counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
The arrest was announced by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, which said investigators with the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office worked the case. According to wspa.com, Winiecki is accused of possessing and sharing files of child sexual abuse material, and Anderson County deputies took him into custody Thursday.
Officials said the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and investigators from the Greenville County and Anderson County sheriff’s offices made the arrests as part of unrelated cases, a detail reported by foxcarolina.com. That same report notes investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is how the men came to law enforcement’s attention.
Felony Counts Carry Years-Long Prison Exposure
Each of the charges against Winiecki is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, per the report. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office will prosecute the case, and Attorney General Alan Wilson stressed that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, a statement also carried by the station’s report.
As first reported by FOX Carolina News, officials said the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Anderson County Sheriff’s Office investigators arrested the Williamston man in connection with the distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Upstate Arrests
CyberTipline-driven investigations have led to several similar Upstate South Carolina arrests in recent months. In March, the Attorney General’s Office announced the arrests of two other men, Harrison Todd Dawson of Anderson and Andrew Paul Varnadore of Greer, on 17 total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. In October 2025, the same office said CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led investigators to two Anderson County men, identified as Wiles and Roper, in a separate case detailed on the Attorney General’s Office website.
The task force work behind these cases is part of a nationwide effort. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that in 2025, Internet Crimes Against Children task forces nationwide conducted nearly 347,000 investigations, leading to the arrest of more than 17,000 offenders, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
