A Clermont man arrested last month for distribution of child sex abuse materials faces an additional charge after investigators followed up on more cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Harley Hershel Payne, Jr., 39, was first arrested on June 2 when an investigator with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office determined Payne had uploaded 15 videos and 11 sexually explicit images of children to three separate digital media storage accounts. The offenses occurred between Nov. 29, 2021, and Jan. 29, 2022, according to arrest warrants. At that point in the investigation, Payne was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of children.
The ongoing investigation determined Payne downloaded 216 images of child pornography to his cell phone on Feb. 1, 2022. Investigators said those images were stored on cloud servers. The discovery led to an additional warrant being issued this week for sexual exploitation of children.
Payne remains in custody at the Hall County Jail.
