A Watkinsville man remained in jail Friday without bond after telling a deputy he'd molested a 4-year-old girl.

Scott Timothy Blanton, 50, was arrested Wednesday night after confessing to Lt. Craig Bryant at AJ's Food Store on U.S. Highway 78, Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said.

Blanton told Bryant, "he'd done something horrible and needed to confess," Berry said.

The deputy asked Blanton to step outside of the store, where the man admitted he had molested the child, Berry said. Following his arrest, investigators determined Blanton had made similar statements to the girl's parents before confronting the deputy.

Blanton was charged with child molestation Wednesday night, Berry said. He was subsequently charged with aggravated sexual battery, enticing a child for indecent purposes, aggravated sodomy. and aggravated child molestation, police said.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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