The US Department of Justice Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia announced a former Virginia Tech professor has been sentenced to five years in prison for possession of child pornography.

ROANOKE – A former Virginia Tech professor is headed to federal prison for five years after being sentenced last week on a child pornography charge, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Michael Horning, 51, of Christiansburg, was sentenced Wednesday, Jan. 15, in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

A former professor of communications at Virginia Tech who downloaded hundreds of child porn images - including some as young as toddlers - will be spending time in prison, federal authorities announced.