U.S. Attorney: Former Douglasville Principal's Actions 'Disgraceful'

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates called “disgraceful” the actions that led to the conviction of a former Douglas County elementary school principal for soliciting sex from a minor.

John Harold McGill, 57, the former principal at Mt. Carmel Elementary School, was convicted Wednesday in Atlanta after a two-day jury trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. McGill was one of 14 people arrested in a GBI child sex sting operation in early March that targeted people who allegedly use the internet to have sex with children. “Operation Broken Heart” involved 37 law enforcement agencies.

In March, a member of the Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force (MATCH) who posed online as the mother of a 13-year-old connected with McGill online, 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.

“The idea that an elementary school principal would attempt to have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl is disgraceful,” Yates said in a press release. “McGill violated a public trust and all sense of common decency, and a jury has held him criminally responsible.”

“The conviction by jury trial of Mr. McGill, a former elementary school principal, on federal charges of attempting to entice a minor child for sex removes a very real and serious threat from our community,” said J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office. “The FBI and its MATCH Task Force will continue to work with its area law enforcement partners as it maintains it’s much needed vigilance in protecting our children from those who would exploit them.”

According to United States Attorney Yates, 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 texts throughout the evening and into early Sunday morning, March 2, 2014. With his wife out of town at a conference, McGill put his children to bed, and then drove more than 50 miles from Douglasville, Ga., to Lithonia, Ga. He arrived at the “mother’s” house at 1:45 a.m., with a condom in his pants pocket. However, the “mother” was an FBI Task Force Officer, and McGill was arrested.

Sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 6, 2015.

See also:

• Accused Principal Wanted to Teach 13-Year-Old ‘How to Be With a Man’
• Douglas County Principal Arrested on Child Sex Charges
• Douglas School Board Names Interim Principal at Mt. Carmel…
• Accused Principal Scheduled in DeKalb County Court
• Arrest Warrant for Principal Charged in Child Sex Sting: ‘He Taught Other Girls’