A Georgia couple has been sentenced to decades in prison for the severe abuse and exploitation of their children, which came to light following a fatal house fire in 2022.
The father, William McCue, was convicted of felony murder, rape, aggravated child molestation and incest. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, followed by a fourth life sentence and an additional 120 years in prison.
The mother, Carina McCue, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including child cruelty, false imprisonment and aggravated assault, receiving a 90-year prison sentence, as reported by ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
The investigation began on April 17, 2022, when emergency crews responded to a fire at the McCue family home in Loganville, WSB-TV reported at the time. While Carina McCue escaped the home with the couple’s 8-year-old and 12-year-old sons, their 10-year-old daughter died from smoke inhalation.
According to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office, the 10-year-old girl was forced to sleep on a piece of plywood placed over a bathtub inside a locked bathroom that had no windows. Prosecutors stated during the trial that the couple’s oldest son, who was 15 at the time, intentionally set the fire in an attempt to escape the severe abuse he and his siblings experienced.
Evidence and testimony presented in court revealed that the children were regularly beaten, forced to wear shock collars and made to stand naked on cinder blocks for days at a time. The District Attorney’s Office said that the children were denied access to toilets and were forced to use buckets instead.
Following the fire, a warrant was issued for William McCue’s arrest, prompting the couple to flee. Law enforcement officials located and arrested them months later on the Appalachian Trail.
As part of a plea agreement, Carina McCue testified against her husband.
She told the court that William McCue had raped their oldest daughter, who was 17 at the time of the fire. The older daughter also testified, stating that her father had repeatedly sexually assaulted both her and her younger sister since childhood.
Although William McCue and his oldest daughter were not at the residence when the fire occurred, prosecutors argued that the severe abuse directly caused the conditions that killed the child. After deliberating for less than four hours, a Gwinnett County jury found him guilty on all counts.
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