Franklin County Man Arrested for Sexually Exploiting Children Online

Martin, GA (October 30, 2020) – On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, Franklin County resident, Matthew Daniel Seay, age 36, was taken into custody on arrest warrants originating out of Virginia by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit (CEACC). The arrest warrants were for the use of communication systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children (victim under the age of 15). The GBI’s CEACC Unit was requested to assist the Harrisonburg Police Department in Virginia with the execution of a search warrant at Seay’s residence in Martin, Georgia, as well as the arrest of Seay on the Virginia arrest warrants.   Seay was discovered to be sexually exploiting multiple juveniles from other states online. The GBI’s Athens Field Office, the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office assisted the GBI CEACC Unit in the search warrant of Seay’s home and Seay’s arrest.

Seay is currently in custody at the Franklin County Jail awaiting extradition to Virginia.

This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force housed within the GBI’s CEACC Unit to identify those involved in the child pornography trade. The ICAC Program, created by the U. S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.

Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Unit at 404-270-8870.