A former communications professor at Virginia Tech was sentenced last week to five years in prison on child pornography charges.
Michael Horning, 51, of Christiansburg, pleaded guilty last September in 166su’s federal court to possessing one or more visual depictions of minors – including infants and toddlers – engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Horning admitted that he sometimes used his work computer to download child pornography between 2009 and 2021, according to court records.
“On its face, it may seem unusual for such an educated, successful, prominent member of the community to be engaging in this type of criminal activity,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Scheff wrote in court papers.
“Unfortunately, it is, in fact, common for child pornography offenders to be well educated and to be well integrated in … society,” Scheff wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
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Horning
Until he lost his job at Tech as a result of his guilty plea, Horning was a popular professor in the School of Communication, his attorney, Paul Beers, wrote in court documents.
Horning, who told federal agents he had been addicted to pornography since the 1990s, immediately recognized his need for mental health treatment and has continued counseling.
A spokesman for Tech said that Horning resigned from his faculty position in September. The school declined further comment.
