A Georgia mother has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after her child finally found the courage to tell a teacher about years of horrific abuse that prosecutors say had been going on since the child was just four years old.
Candice McClure, 35, of Lenox, was convicted of aggravated assault and cruelty to children following a four-day trial in Cherokee County.
A jury deliberated for just two and a half hours before returning its guilty verdict, and a judge subsequently handed down the maximum sentence allowed under Georgia law. The case began to unravel in 2023, when a child disclosed to an elementary school teacher that McClure had kicked and punched their legs and choked them with her hands.
The teacher’s report prompted both the Division of Family and Children Services and the Canton Police Department to open a formal investigation. DFCS workers made an unannounced visit to McClure’s home, where a caseworker photographed bruising on the child’s leg and a patterned injury on their forehead, according to news reports published by The Valdosta Daily Times.
The child was then transported to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where medical providers documented significant bruising on the legs and confirmed that the forehead injury was consistent with being struck by a belt, which prosecutors say McClure had used repeatedly, flogging the child across the forehead.
“The schoolteachers are the heroes in this case,” said Cherokee County District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway. “They recognized the signs of abuse and created a safe place for the child to come forward.” The abuse, prosecutors revealed, had not begun in Cherokee County.
McClure had been arrested on child cruelty charges as far back as 2016, when the child was just four years old. Reports from that time described the child being brought to a medical centre on two separate occasions with unexplained bruises and scrapes covering their body from head to toe.
“The family was new to Cherokee County, and we believe the abuse had been ongoing before the family arrived,” the DA’s office said. At sentencing, the child delivered a victim impact statement accompanied by an adoptive parent, a victim advocate, and a service dog named Parker.
“The child expressed appreciation for being ‘heard’ by the jury and told the defendant that no one deserves to be treated in that manner,” according to the DA’s office. Treadaway called the child’s suffering “heartbreaking.” “Instead of protecting her own child, the defendant repeatedly inflicted abuse that caused lasting harm,” she said. “This conviction and sentence send a clear message that Cherokee County will not tolerate the abuse of children.”
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