Man accused of crimes against children
A registered sex offender is accused of committing sex crimes against children in Cleveland and Lincoln counties.
The arrest came this week, but the investigation began several months ago.
On Nov. 28, 2022, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received information regarding alleged sexual exploitation of a child.
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the case in early 2022 when pornographic recordings of a minor were discovered on accounts belonging to the defendant, Philip Scott Harris, 37, of Aberdeen, according to a press release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
During the investigation, detectives discovered that the recordings allegedly had been produced at a residence in Lincoln County where the defendant previously lived.
Cleveland County Sheriff's Office charged Harris with four counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, failure to report an address change as a sex offender, and failure to report new online identifiers as a sex offender.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office charged Harris with four counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
Harris was arrested in Moore County on March 19, and assigned an $80,000 bond.
According to the sex offender registry, Harris was sentenced to probation and added to the registry in 2009 on a second-degree kidnapping of a minor conviction that involved a 15-year-old child.
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Man accused of crimes against children in Cleveland, Lincoln counties
