Christiansburg resident Michael Horning, 51, pleaded guilty in September 2024 to a one-count charging him with "knowingly possessing one or more visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including prepubescent minors and minors who have not yet attained 12 years of age," prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, they announced that he has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison.
According to court documents, Horning downloaded child pornography between 2009 and 2021, sometimes through use of the peer-to-peer filesharing program, Freenet.
Prosecutors said that at the time he was identified as a suspect and his devices were seized, Horning was in possession of 663 images and fourteen videos depicting child pornography, as well as additional child sex abuse material.
Of this child sex abuse material, thirty-eight images and one video depicted infants or toddlers and one video depicted sadomasochism.
Horning was appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech in 2014, according to the university's website.
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