GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A man and wife accused of abusing their children will each face more than decades in prison after being convicted and sentenced.
The father, William McCue, was convicted of felony murder, rape, aggravated child molestation and incest after his 10-year-old daughter died was convicted and sentenced. The mother, Carina McCue pled guilty to multiple child cruelty charges.
Channel 2 Action News previously reported when the McCues were under investigation after their daughter died in a 2022 house fire.
After their child’s death, a warrant was issued for William McCue’s arrest and the couple vanished. They were found months later on the Appalachian trail and both were arrested.
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Prosecutors said the initial incident happened on April 17, 2022, when emergency responders were called to the McCues’ home in Loganville for a house fire.
Carina was able to get the couple’s then-8- and 12-year-old sons out of the home, but could not get to their 10-year-old daughter “whose ‘bedroom’ did not have a window,’” the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office said.
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In reality, the DA’s office said the 10-year-old was sleeping on a makeshift bed made up of a piece of plywood over a bathtub in a locked bathroom with no windows.
She died from smoke inhalation.
Prosecutors told the jury that the oldest McCue son, who was 15 at the time of the fire, had set the fire to escape the abuse he and his siblings were subjected to.
Further testimony and evidence presented at the trial showed that the children were beaten, forced to wear shock collars and stand naked on cinder blocks for hours or days at a time, unable to use toilets but having to relieve themselves in buckets, according to the district attorney.
Carina McCue, who pled guilty to counts of child cruelty, false imprisonment and aggravated assault, agreed to testify 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 testified that her father had repeatedly sexually assaulted both girls since they were young.
Despite William McCue and the oldest daughter not being home at the time of the fire, the DA’s office said he was found liable for his younger daughter’s death. A jury found him guilty on all counts.
The McCues were convicted by a Gwinnett County jury and sentenced to:
- William McCue: 2 counts rape, 3 counts aggravated child molestation, 2 counts incest. He was sentenced to serve three consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, followed by a fourth life sentence and a consecutive 120 years in prison.
- Carina McCue: 3 counts first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. She was sentenced to 90 years in prison.
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