Serial Child Molester Sentenced To Life In Prison In Cobb County

MARIETTA, GA — A serial child molester who had first pleaded guilty to child molestation in 1998 will spend his life in prison after he was sentenced on Thursday.

Michael Shane Kilgore was convicted of one count of aggravated sexual battery, one count of child molestation and one count of first-degree child cruelty by a Cobb County jury on Sept. 30, officials said.

"I don't expect that you will ever take a breath in the free world again," Cobb County Chief Judge Robert Leonard, who sentenced Kilgore, said to him during the sentencing.

The charges stemmed from acts of aggravated sexual battery by Kilgore against his then-six-year-old niece in 2015, officials said in a news release.

His niece told her mother about the molestation in 2018, officials said, and the incidents were reported to Cobb County Police.

The six-year-old girl's mother was also molested by Kilgore when she was a child, officials said — and Kilgore had pleaded guilty to child molestation for abusing her in 1998.

During their investigation, police identified five other victims of Kilgore's molestation, and all of them testified at trial about Kilgore's pattern of child sexual abuse.

Kilgore denied molesting all six of the victims presented at trial — including the girl's mother, even though he had previously pleaded guilty to that abuse over two decades ago.

A jury found Kilgore guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"Kilgore is a serial child-molester who terrorized multiple victims over multiple decades," said Assistant District Attorney David Bailey, a member of the District Attorney's Office's trial team. "I am thankful for the jury and all who made sacrifices so this predator would never have access to a child again."