Editor’s note: Reader discretion is advised. This story describes allegations of extreme child sexual abuse.
CHARLESTON — A suspended county magistrate is accused of sexually abusing children in his West Ashley neighborhood and planning to travel to Florida to molest and allegedly kill an infant with another man, according to a new filing from federal prosecutors.
James B. Gosnell Jr., 68, is expected to be charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor in state court after federal investigators searched his phone and found lengthy Telegram conversations he had with suspected pedophiles.
In those conversations, he allegedly admitted to abusing children in his care, traveling internationally to molest children and offering training to others, according to a Sept. 22 filing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Carolina.
“The conversations detailed the children … that Gosnell had raped and abused, and formed plans for Gosnell to travel to Florida in November to rape and potentially (kill) a very young child. All of this was done while he served as a judge for Charleston County,” a detention hearing brief reads.
Gosnell was set to appear for a federal detention hearing on Sept. 22 but waived his hearing after federal prosecutors revealed the new allegations.
Lionel Lofton, Gosnell’s attorney, declined to comment after the cancelled hearing.
The allegations prompted U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Bryan P. Stirling to appear in court and speak with reporters after. He implored any possible victims and parents of possible victims to contact them at Charleston_exploitationtips@hsi.dhs.gov. .
“To the parents of the community, our investigation has revealed that Gosnell claims to have abused very young children. If you have left your child alone with Gosnell, even letting him hold your child, please email the tipline,” Stirling said. “I stress please, please reach out to this tipline.”
Gosnell previously held leadership roles in the Boy Scouts and his local church, according to The Post and Courier’s archives. Court records and news accounts indicate he traveled in the same circles in the 1980s and 1990s as scoutmaster Henry Paul who was later convicted of possessing child sexual abuse materials.
Stirling declined to answer questions about how many victims they believe Gosnell may have had.
Prosecutors indicated the charges against Gosnell would expand in federal court to include receipt of child pornography, distribution of child pornography and transportation for criminal sexual activity.
Federal Magistrate Judge Molly H. Cherry said a rescheduled hearing would be set within the next 10 days.
Prosecutors describe Gosnell as an “inextricable spoke in the wheel” in producing, sharing child sexual abuse imagery
The bombshell allegations came a day after Lofton wrote in court filings that Gosnell’s suspected possession of illicit sexual abuse media of children was an isolated incident and that he had not abused any children.
Investigators found the exchanges after a preliminary forensic search of a vast collection of electronic devices and paper records indicated otherwise, they wrote in the brief. Hours before Gosnell was set to appear in court, prosecutors accused Gosnell of being “an inextricable spoke in the wheel of the (child sexual abuse material) industry,” according to the brief.
In one alleged Telegram exchange, Gosnell shared a selfie he took with a 2-year-old, saying he had abused the child weeks earlier and called the child “my new little buddy.” He also allegedly sent another photo of himself holding a two-week-old infant, saying he sexually abused the baby, according to the federal filing.
“Crucially — in Gosnell’s own words — he did more than possess child sexual abuse materials. As outlined above, he told another pedophile in great detail about his prior rape and abuse of infants, toddlers, and children,” the brief reads.
Telegram is an encrypted social media messaging app popular in Europe and South America and similar to WhatsApp.
Gosnell and an unidentified Florida man are accused of engaging in a romantic relationship that centered around the sexual abuse of children, according to the filing.
Prosecutors said messages between Gosnell and the man from Florida indicated Gosnell would travel south later this year and “jointly rape and torture” an infant relative of the unidentified man. Prosecutors detailed communications between the two, describing what they would do to the child.
The two men exchanged illicit images of sexually abused children by mailing flash drives to each other, according to the brief.
A search of his devices also allegedly revealed extensive messages with suspected pedophiles and child sexual abuse material sellers, where he allegedly detailed previous times in which he sexually molested infants and young children.
In one instance, he described abusing a baby only a few months old, according to federal prosecutors. He also allegedly wrote that he had traveled to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico to pay to molest a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old.
Investigators also found records of Zoom sessions with others in which he taught them “the tricks of the trade,” according to prosecutors.
Agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations seized 14 flash drives, four computers, seven SD cards, two iPads, an iPhone and numerous VHS tapes and CDs on Sept. 16 when they raided Gosnell’s home in West Ashley. They also found financial documents related to his alleged crimes in his judge’s chambers, according to the brief.
One flash drive contained hundreds of videos of children as young as infants and a computer contained thousands of photos of related content, according to the brief.
Gosnell held positions of trust and authority in Charleston for decades
Gosnell is a native Charlestonian with lifelong ties to the community in which he presided over as a judge and is now accused of committing crimes within.
His judgeship aside, Gosnell held a variety of other local leadership positions throughout the years, the newspaper’s archives show.
In 1989, Gosnell was a deacon at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and later chaired the task force in charge of repairing more than $300,000 worth of damage that Hurricane Hugo caused to the Wappoo Road building.
Throughout the early-to-mid-1990s, he took on the leadership roles of assistant scoutmaster and scoutmaster, and helped chaperone more than 100 scouts as they headed to Virginia for the Boy Scouts’ national jamboree.
Gosnell dabbled in the political realm as early as 1978, including working as a poll manager, filing officer or local campaign coordinator in several Republican primaries.
Before he became a judge, Gosnell helped maintain order within the magistrate’s courtroom as a constable. But he has spent the better part of the past three decades sitting on the bench.
Gosnell asked federal agents if they ‘knew who he was’
Gosnell answered the door in the early morning of Sept. 16 to knocks from federal agents, according to the brief. The judge, according to the brief, asked if they “knew who he was.”
They did, and served him the warrant.
Prosecutors wrote Gosnell then “confessed to possessing, attempting to purchase (child sexual abuse materials) and communicating with ‘like-minded individuals’ on Telegram.”
When they asked him if his collection included media of “little babies,” he said it contained “everything,” according to the brief.
Investigators eventually became aware of his suspected possession after PayPal flagged November 2024 transactions with a known United Kingdom seller of child sexual abuse material. A PayPal account and a credit and/or debit card held in his name was used in purchases that later had holds placed on them, according to court records.
South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice John Kittredge suspended Gosnell from the bench hours after his arrest. Gosnell was first appointed to the bench in 1996.