"Wheel of Fortune" announcer sacked following chatroom exposé

Long-time "Wheel of Fortune" announcer Jim Thornton has been fired by Sony Pictures Television after getting caught out by messages he was posting on an online chatroom.

In May of this year, a fellow passenger on a flight Thornton was taking bound for Los Angeles described to TMZ that she saw images and messages on Thorton's laptop that pertained to paedophilia. One such message used the acronym "CP" which she believed stood for child p*rn.

The passenger alerted the authorities who detained and questioned Thornton on arrival in Los Angeles, but was released without charge a short time later. Thornton was then suspended from his duties on WoF with the production team stating: "We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton. He has been suspended from Wheel of Fortune and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation."

The scandal resurfaced earlier this month when TMZ published an image of Thornton viewing lewd messages via the Tor* browser while on a flight. This prompted Sony Pictures Television to dismiss Thornton from Wheel of Fortunes and the company itself. The 44th series is currently in production and Thornton's lines have been re-recorded by another as-yet-unnamed announcer.

Thornton's solicitor maintains that there was no illegal activity and alleges that the reason he was viewing such messages is that he lost a close family member to suicide years earlier and had frequented suicide prevention forums to help people going through similar circumstance. She alleges that an aquintance on one of the suicide prevention forums had sent him a link to access the forum on paedophilia. Thornton alleges that he immediately left the chatroom upon discovering the true nature of the forum, however the evidence posted by TMZ suggests that he was logged in to the chatroom for over an hour.

Thornton had been announcer on "Wheel of Fortune" for 15 years, succeeding the late Charlie O'Donnell. He was also briefly as substitute announcer on "The Price is Right" and had a cameo role in the Pixar film "Monsters Inc."

*Tor is a web browser that allows users to remain anonymous, hiding user data and activity. It is often used by people knowingly comitting ilicit activities.