A former employee of the Cobb County Parks and Recreation Department was sentenced to 20 years in prison for producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Ryan Hornback, 28, of Kennesaw, who also ran a photography business, pleaded guilty in October, Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn said in an emailed statement.
“Hornback desired access to more child pornography, and his solution was to produce more on his own to trade in the online community,” Horn said. “Victimizing the children he viewed online wasn’t enough, so he tragically brought yet another innocent victim to face the horrors of child porn on a personal level. This office devotes significant resources to combat child pornography, and will always focus on those offenders who take the despicable step of producing it.”
In April, a federal search warrant was executed at Hornback’s home after investigators were informed he was trading child porn, Horn’s office said. During a search of the home, Hornback acknowledged he used a Google email address to send child pornography he produced to another suspect in the state of Washington, according to investigators.
Hornback confessed he liked to trade the images with other people to get more child pornography for himself, prosecutors said. He also acknowledged that he produced sexually explicit images of a minor victim over Thanksgiving 2013 and kept the pictures on a thumb drive. The minor victim was interviewed during the investigation.
After serving his 20-year sentence, Hornback will be spend five years on supervised release, Horn said.
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