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A former high school teacher in Virginia was sentenced on Friday to nearly three years in prison for hacking private digital accounts of celebrities and others. Christopher Brannan was the fifth person indicted in 2014 "celebrate"scandal in which hackers have obtained nude photographs and other private information of more than 200 people.
Actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are among the celebrities who claimed to be victims.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Brannan had hacked email accounts by answering security questions that he could easily search through the victims' Facebook accounts. They added that he also had access to private accounts using phishing email accounts designed to look like Apple's security accounts. Brannan then accessed the victim's email accounts and searched for personal information, including nude photos.
Brannan, 31, pleaded guilty in October to aggravated theft of identity and unauthorized access to a protected computer.
He apologized on Friday before being sentenced to 34 months in prison. Brannan stated that he was suffering from anxiety and depression and that he had become addicted to pornography.
"I let the addiction take control of me and I deeply regret it," he said.
Brannan was a special education professor at the Lee-Davis High School in Mechanicsville from 2013 to 2015. Court documents indicate that he admitted to having hacked or attempted to hack into teacher accounts and accounts. 39 students and alumni and current high school students.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors and Brannan's lawyer have recommended 34 months' imprisonment.
US Attorney General Jessica Aber told Judge Henry Hudson that the number of intrusions was enormous. "It's really a huge invasion of privacy," she said.
Brannan's lawyer, Abraham Del Rio III, told Hudson that Brannan had overcome his anxiety and depression by watching pornography online.
After hearing from Del Rio, Hudson told Brannan that he was still "a bit puzzled" about why a person with a good job and seeming to be on the right track in life would hack accounts private. "These are questions that I have spent a lot of time asking myself," Brannan said.
Brannan has been ordered to begin serving his sentence on April 1 st.
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