14th Circuit Solicitor's Office​

Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties​

Bluffton man sentenced to 25 years in child sexual abuse case

BEAUFORT, SC (Sept. 21, 2016) – A Bluffton man who sexually abused a 5-year-old child has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.


A jury found Justin Paul Adams, 25, guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor following a two-day trial at the Beaufort County Courthouse. The jury deliberated for about an hour.

The abuse, which occurred over the course of several weeks in 2013, was initially disclosed to the child’s grandmother.

The child victim testified that the defendant in the case ‘hurt him,” said the case’s prosecutor, Assistant Solicitor Alex Joseph. “I told the jury that they needed to listen to the child in this case. What the child said has been consistent. The facts and details the child provided were not ordinary and would not have been something a child would have known.”

Assistant Solicitor Dustin Whetsel sat second chair.

The sentence was handed down by Circuit Court Judge Brooks Goldsmith.