Andrew Manning, 42, wasn’t just watching pornographic material that contained minors on computers in FAU’s Boca campus library. He was also watching animated pornography that depicted “animated, sketched, and 3-D rendered images of male children involved in explicit sexual activity, including extreme bondage acts.”
On Tuesday, May 28, the Delray Beach man pleaded guilty to watching child pornography at the S.E. Wimberly Library in 2011. Manning has been convicted of four third-degree felony charges of possession child pornography.
A witness who came across the material on a computer in the library reported it to FAU Police, who arrested Manning on July 5, 2012. Manning posted bail, which was set at $12,000. After pleading guilty to the charge on Tuesday, Manning was sentenced to 15 months in Palm Beach County Jail and 10 years probation by Palm Beach County Judge Jeffrey Colbath. Judge Colbath explained that his sentencing was better than the alternative, a maximum of four years per charge.
Manning lives in Delray Beach and works as a veterinary assistant. He is not a student or staff member at FAU, and appears to have no connection to the university. He has been a registered sex offender since 2010, according to the Sun Sentinel, and was charged with possession of material that includes sexual conduct with a minor in 2004, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Sexual Offender Database.
“The system as is worked fine to stop this person. It is hard to regulate human behavior, as you know,” Dean of University Libraries William Miller told the UP in an email. “We would not want to impose restrictions that would cause inconvenience for all students just because one person abused the system. Such problems are rare.”
Stephanie Cime, a senior Social Work major who uses the library three times a week on average, described the act as disgusting. “He needs more than five [sic] months in jail. He needs to be there for years.”
