A Louisiana man who confessed to trying to rape a 7-year-old girl has been sentenced to physical and chemical castration.
According to TMZ, 37-year-old Thomas Allen McCartney agreed to the procedures on Tuesday as part of a plea deal with the Vernon Parish District Attorney’s Office.
McCartney pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree rape of a child under the age of 13. The Leesville resident was also sentenced to 40 years in state prison.
As reported by KPLC, McCartney was arrested in 2024 after a Louisiana mother walked in on him “engaging in sexual contact” with her daughter.
Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft told the outlet that a “disturbance involving a firearm ensued” between the mom and McCartney. The man reportedly fled the scene in a vehicle and was arrested the following day in Texas' Harris County.
“This is a horrific crime that never should have happened,” Vernon Parish District Attorney Terry Lambright said in a statement. “Thomas McCartney is a predator that needs to be locked away from others in our community.”
According to KPLC, McCartney had been designated a sex offender prior to the 2024 incident. He was convicted of aggravated rape in 2011, arrested on one count of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile in 2006, and hit with two counts of aggravated rape of a 12-year-old in 2010.
The sentencing came more than a year after Louisiana became the first U.S. state to legalize surgical castration for certain sex offenders. Surgical castration is an irreversible procedure in which the testicles or ovaries are removed.
Louisiana has allowed chemical castration for some sex offenders since 2008. The treatment involves medication that aims to quell an offender’s sex drive and ability to become sexually aroused. Unlike physical castration, chemical castration is reversible.