Three family members were given multiple life sentences for raping and prostituting three minors, one as young as 2 years old, for several years.
And the Fulton County judge who handled the case is calling it one of the most heinous crimes she has ever seen.
Mr. Thomas Johnson, 45, his sister Ms. Maryland Johnson, 46, and her daughter, Ms. Crystal Johnson, 32, were charged in a 34-count indictment that include rape, sexual battery, child molestation, aggravated sodomy and pimping, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ms. Shawn LaGrua said each of the defendants deserved maximum penalties for their crimes and sentenced them accordingly on Wednesday.
Ms. Crystal Johnson was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 150 years to run consecutively. Ms. Maryland Johnson was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences plus 70 years to run consecutively and Mr. Thomas Johnson was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Investigators said the three allegedly abused the three children during a five-year span from 2004 through 2009 when the children were 2 to 4 years old.
“According to the investigation, the children were molested and forced to perform sexual acts on the defendants,” the district attorney’s spokeswoman Ms. Yvette Brown said. “Two of the children were also prostituted.”
Authorities were alerted years after the abuse following detailed forensic interviews with the children that revealed the on-going abuse. And the three defendants were indicted in 2011, Ms. Brown said.
“All of the children have received therapy for the trauma related to their abuse,” Ms. Brown said. “However, one of the victims is was so severely traumatized both physically and mentally that he has been committed to a psychiatric residential treatment facility since 2009.”
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