Convicted child molester sentenced to life in prison

A Cartersville man will spend the rest of his life in prison for sexually abusing a young girl in Cobb County.

A trial jury on Tuesday convicted Gary Thomas Shaughnessy of two counts of aggravated sexual battery and five counts of child molestation in connection to the abuse he carried out between 2016 and 2017 at the child’s home in Powder Springs, the District Attorney’s Office said.

The girl, now 11, revealed the abuse in 2017 to people at her church and those members notified police. According to the DA’s office, those church members told police they noticed Shaughnessy “rubbing the child’s thigh and forcing her to sit on his lap.”

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During the trial, which began Monday, jurors heard testimony from the victim and a recording from a phone call Shaughnessy made while he was in jail in which he said, “I wish I had never done what I did. I just had a weakness.”

Shaughnessy, 64, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard II to serve life in prison plus 19 years. He was represented by Marietta attorney Joel Bergstrom.