NC ‘Santa’ pleads guilty to child porn charge

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WILMINGTON, N.C. — A Raleigh man who worked as a Santa-for-hire has pleaded guilty to creating child pornography, according to WRAL.

Leander Dewey Jones, 64, of 2931 Brentwood Road, faces up to 30 years in prison.

Jones, who worked under the name “Santa Lee Jones,” was arrested after a computer repair shop found pornography on his computer last year.

Investigators told WRAL they found approximately 5,000 sexually explicit images on a computer, hard drives and CDs taken from his home.

Jones, however, isn’t the first local Santa to plead guilty to charges like these.

In 2012, another member of the Triangle Santa Buddies organization pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and soliciting sex by computer.