Sentenced: Former Elementary School Principal Tried to Have Sex with 13-Year-Old

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John Harold McGill, the former Mt. Carmel Elementary School convicted of trying to solicit sex from a minor last year, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said Friday.

McGill, 57, was convicted in December on charges he used email and text messages in order to have sex with a teen he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

“It is deeply disturbing and disappointing that an elementary school principal would attempt to have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl,” Acting United States Attorney John Horn said in a news release. “We will continue to devote every resource possible to protecting children and prosecuting those who prey upon them.”

From U.S. Attorney’s Office press release: “According to Acting United States Attorney Horn, the charges, and evidence presented in court: On Saturday, March 1, 2014, McGill responded to an Internet advertisement named “casual encounters,” purportedly posted by a mother who was seeking a man to introduce her thirteen-year-old daughter to sexual intercourse. McGill communicated with who he thought was the girl’s mother by email and text throughout the evening and into early Sunday morning, March 2, 2014.”

McGill was one of 14 people arrested in a GBI child sex sting operation in early March that targeted people who allegedly used the Internet to have sex with children. “Operation Broken Heart” involved 37 law enforcement agencies.

Before the arrest, a member of the Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force (MATCH) who posed online as the mother connected with McGill, and the subsequent emails and texts between the two led him to a Lithonia residence where he was to meet the girl. He was arrested instead.

Prosecutors said McGill’s wife was out of town during the weekend of the arrest, and after he put his own kids to bed, he drove the 50 miles from Douglasville to Lithonia for sex. He had a condom in his pants pocket when he was arrested in the early morning of March 2, prosecutors said.

McGill, of Douglasville, also was ordered by United States District Judge William S. Duffey to remain on supervised release following his incarceration.

McGill was suspended by the Douglas County School Board, which has since hired a new principal.

MORE ON PATCH

• Douglas County Elementary School Principal Arrested on Child Sex Charges
• Douglas School Board Names Interim Principal at Mt. Carmel Elementary
• School Board Names New Principal at Mt. Carmel Elementary
• Arrest Warrant for Principal Charged in Child Sex Sting: ‘He Taught Other Girls’
• Accused Elementary School Principal Scheduled in DeKalb County Court
• Elementary School Principal Indicted on Federal Charges in Child Sex Case
• U.S. Attorney: Former Douglasville Principal’s Actions ‘Disgraceful’
• Officer Testifies: Accused Principal Wanted to Teach 13-Year-Old ‘How to Be With a Man’