Harold Rubin Ayton - Repeat Sex Offender - Saved Proof of his crime on his phone

Police arrested a homeless 30-year-old registered sex offender they say had saved images of child pornography on his cell phone.

Officers with the City of Columbia Police Department arrested Harold Rubin Ayton on Monday and charged him with sexual exploitation of a minor in the third degree, two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Ayton was featured on News19 and wltx.com recently after Richland County deputies say he failed to register as a sex offender, something that South Carolina state law requires him to do.

Police say Ayton had pictures that showed him having sex with children. Officers say that phone was given to the Attorney General's Office for forensic examination, and they determined that pornographic images were saved on the phone.

Ayton is being detained at the Richland County jail on a $200,000 bond. Newberry police helped in the investigation.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."

Dr. R. Karl Hansen