
While the Republican Party and its supporters have long baselessly accused LGBTQ+ people, drag queens, and their allies of grooming children for sexual abuse, here’s yet another story of a Christian GOP politician in South Carolina who was recently caught for actually doing that very thing.
Kevin Hedgpeth, the 48-year-old Hanahan City Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem, was charged with possession and production of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for allegedly communicating with and paying children to send him CSAM videos and images.
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The politician’s Cash App and PayPal accounts paid approximately 47 accounts that were associated with minors or suspected of selling CSAM, WCIV reported. The investigation showed that he allegedly stored the images on an iCloud account registered to his personal e-mail address and then accessed them with his home WiFi and personal phone networks.
He now faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison as well as lifetime supervision and sex offender registration requirements.