A former Emory University professor was sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to downloading at least 8,000 child-pornography images using the university’s Wi-Fi.
Kevin M. Sullivan, 61, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to downloading the images in December, according to a release from U.S. Attorney John Horn. Sullivan will be on seven years of supervised release after his sentence.
“Sullivan downloaded thousands of files depicting the sexual abuse of children,” Horn said. “He attempted to cover his tracks by using his personal computer on the internet system at Emory to download the images. As predators continue to try to develop new methods to feed and download child pornography, we will continue to find them and prosecute them.”
Agents were first tipped off about the former epidemiology professor in October 2014 when Swiss law enforcement seized a server that was hosting child pornography, Horn said. Login information showed that someone from the university's Rollins School of Public Health was using the school's Wi-Fi to access the images.
With the help of Emory’s information technology department, Horn said agents discovered Sullivan was accessing the images from the Swiss website.
In June 2015, just after Sullivan had left his office, agents found child pornography on his personal laptop and external hard drive, Horn said. Officials found Sullivan at his home later that day and arrested him.
Titles suggestive of child pornography were found on his home computer, but Horn said the actual files had been deleted. In all, more than 8,000 files with child pornography had been found on the computer.
In addition to the prison time, Sullivan must pay a $15,000 fine.
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