A Republican in the South Carolina legislature is being held without bond on accusations of distributing sexual abuse material involving children online.

Robert John May III appeared in federal court on Thursday morning after a federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment against him. The judge declared him a flight risk because of evidence presented that he had made multiple trips to Colombia to have sex with “youthful sex workers,” the Island Packet reported.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina says the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber-tip from a social messaging app, Kik, which says it flagged several videos from the username “joebidennnn69” as containing child sexual abuse.

Investigators say they connected the account to the home IP address and mobile device of Mr. May and identified at least 10 videos depicting child sexual abuse that were shared from the account.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the videos had graphic sex acts performed on and by children. Its legal filing claimed Mr. May showed sexual interest in children the same age as his own children, and his online activity indicated he has a interest in incest between a father and young children.

Mr. May faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Mr. May had been under a cloud of suspicion since federal authorities raided his home last August and seized a computer.

Mr. May is a three-term state representative who was first elected in 2020. As a political consultant, he angered fellow house Republicans by running campaigns for candidates facing off against GOP incumbents in primaries, the Associated Press reported.

He is a former vice chairman of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, a caucus of the house’s most conservative members. The group released a statement after Mr. May’s arrest saying he had been expelled from the caucus. “We call for his immediate resignation from the House,” the statement says. “These crimes are heinous and we expect that they will be fully investigated.”

On Thursday, South Carolina’s house speaker, Murrell Smith, suspended Mr. May from the house but did not immediately call for his resignation.

In 2022, Mr. May responded to an Elon Musk post where he said removing child exploitation from X (then called Twitter) was his first priority. “Wonder if this includes exposing children to drag shows or pushing sex changes on toddlers,” Mr. May asked.