Anson teacher charged with possession of ‘hundreds’ of child porn pictures, videos

WADESBORO — Ansonville Elementary School teacher Clinton Justin Jones has been charged with 18 felonies relating to the possession of child pornography following his arrest on Dec. 30.

The Anson County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 28 requested assistance from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to look into a CyberTip regarding sexual exploitation of a child. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received CyberTips relating to this case in December 2020 and March 2021, according to the SBI.

“The SBI located hundreds of CSE (child sexual exploitation) images/videos found on smartphones, computers and media storage devices in Jones’ possession at his home,” said Anjanette Grube, public information director for the NCSBI.

After an investigation, the SBI and Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at Jones’s home in Wadesboro. The investigation is ongoing.

Anson County Schools said in a post on Facebook that they currently “have no indication” that any local children were involved in any of the charges against Jones.

Jones, 42, has been charged with 18 felony counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, which is a Class E felony carrying a maximum sentence of 138 months, according to the North Carolina General Assembly’s website.

He was place under a $150,000 secure bond, and has since been released on bail.

Jones was hired by Anson County Schools in February 2011 as a substitute teacher and became a full-time teacher on Sept. 9, 2013 at Ansonville Elementary, the school system said in a statement. Jones resigned from his position on Jan. 5.

“Based on the information currently available to the school system, we have no indication of any involvement by any Anson County Schools students with Mr. Jones or in connection with any of these charges,” reads the school system’s Facebook post. “We currently have no reason to believe that any Anson County Schools students have been involved or affected. We do understand, however, that this is an ongoing investigation.”

Warrants for Jones’s arrest describe the content of at least some of the videos he allegedly had in his possession. They contained footage of sexual acts between children and between children and adults, each of the children estimated by investigators to be 13 years old or younger.