A former social studies teacher at St. Mary’s High School pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child pornography Wednesday and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Michael Hislop, 27, will have to register for 15 years as a Tier I sex offender and complete three years of supervised probation. During that time, he will not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with a child, nor will he be able to work in a position involving children, said Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Stacy McCormack.
In Maryland, Tier I designation is the least severe among the state registry with Tier III being the most. According to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the age of the victim is not relevant to what tier a defendant is assigned.
Hislop, who began teaching at the Annapolis Catholic school in 2022, was arrested in March after police searched his home in Arnold. According to Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Fox, when questioned by authorities, Hislop described his use of child pornography as being like “an itch in the back of my brain.”
In January, detectives with the Anne Arundel County Police Department’s Special Enforcement and Narcotics Division received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about 22 pornographic files on two separate IP addresses.
According to charging documents, after reviewing the uploaded content and issuing subpoenas to two service providers, detectives discovered child pornography linked to a St. Mary’s IP address in downtown Annapolis, as well as Hislop’s home.
Police spokesperson Marc Limansky said in March that while “no images were found on school-owned devices or computers, investigators believe Hislop may have used the school’s network to conduct illegal activity related to images found on his personal devices.”
Hislop was placed on administrative leave immediately after the school learned of the police investigation, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Baltimore said. He was fired in February, a month before being charged with 16 misdemeanors.
At the time his leave began, Hislop was up to date with child protection training, according to church officials. According to the Anne Arundel County Police Department and the Archdiocese of Baltimore, there is no indication that anyone at the school was affected by or involved in Hislop’s crimes.
Hislop attended and graduated from St. Mary’s High School before receiving bachelor’s and graduate degrees from Loyola University.
Defense attorney Peter O’Neill told the court he believed mental health concerns were a factor in his client’s decision to download the material and that by engaging with it, Hislop was “almost begging to be caught.”
He said Hislop had already undergone a psychosexual evaluation which found the teacher was not a pedophile, even though the pornography suggests an attraction to children. He also said his client has been receptive to treatment and engaged in several hours of therapy.
Before issuing her sentence, McCormack said probation before judgment was possible, which could have cleared the case from Hislop’s record. And though she opted not to follow the state’s suggestion of 18 months incarceration — a request Fox made considering the age of the girls depicted and the age of students at the school — she said jail time was “appropriate.”
Because the sentence is less than 18 months, Hislop will serve his time at a local detention center, O’Neill said. After his arrest, Hislop was released on his own recognizance, meaning he does not have any credited time.
Hislop’s wife attended Wednesday’s hearing. O’Neill said his client has been in a years-long relationship with her and that she has continued to support her husband.
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