Edmond Newspaper Employee Arrested On Child Porn Charges

A former employee at the Edmond Sun newspaper has been arrested for numerous complaints of child porn.

Jared Horton, 29, had been staying with his sister in Edmond and police said her 16-year-old son found Horton's stash of hundreds of child porn images. Police said some of the children engaged in the sex acts are under the age of 6.

"Family members did the right thing in coming forward, I think it would be very easy to brush it under the rug and try to ignore it," said Jenny Monroe with Edmond Police.

Edmond Police said they got involved June 4th after Horton's nephew found Horton's MP3 player and plugged it in to listen to music. They said what the boy found instead were nude images of a young boy who appeared to be 10-years-old.

The affidavit said Horton's nephew then plugged in one of Horton's flash drives and found more nude photos of the same boy. Investigators said they later found even more child porn on 12 of Horton's devices.

"It appears that it's professionally done," explained Monroe. "A lot of the images have a logo on them like they've been purchased maybe from some people who are manufacturing this."

Horton worked at the Edmond Sun newspaper for five years as a graphic artist. His publisher confirmed he was terminated Friday when police seized his work computers to see whether he had downloaded child porn at work.

"We have suspects of all types of professions," said Monroe.

Horton's sister told News 9 she kicked Horton out and he apologized. She said Horton has developmental problems, the mentality of a teenager and is socially awkward. She said she loves her brother and supports him no matter what.

"It's such a sensitive issue to begin with and the fact that they were very willing to cooperate with us helped," said Monroe.

Horton was arrested on two counts of aggravated child pornography, which is a charge indicating more than 100 images, and 10 counts of possession of child porn.