JCSO responds to child predator allegations | News | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

According to an Aug. 26 incident report from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to EJHS after members of a YouTube group that uses online decoys to identify suspected child predators confronted the man and contacted authorities.

Members of the group told deputies that another person had communicated with the man through Snapchat while posing as a 14-year-old. They said the man sent multiple explicit photographs and videos during the conversations.

The deputy reported that members of the group showed law enforcement a recording of the communications but did not have the phone used by the decoy or login information for the Snapchat account.

The deputy then spoke with the man, who acknowledged sending the photos and videos, according to the report.

The man told the deputy that the decoy claimed to be from South Carolina and said the age of consent there was 14. He said he initially accepted that statement without checking it, but later researched the law after becoming concerned that the decoy was recording videos he had sent.

According to the report, the man said he stopped communicating with the account after learning that the age of consent in South Carolina was not 14.

He declined to turn over his cellphone as evidence while seeking legal counsel, the report stated.

He was not a school employee but had served as a community football coach at East Jackson Middle School. The school system cut ties with the man after the incident.

School officials said there is no indication that the man contacted any school system students.

No arrest or criminal charge was listed in the incident report.

This is the fourth similar incident involving a private predator-catching group in Jackson County in the past few months.