Father Sentenced to Sixteen Years for Abusing Children

Prosecutors in District Attorney General Charme Allen’s Criminal Court Division obtained a sixteen-year sentence against a father who physically abused his two sons. In January 2015, Kenneth Michael McIntosh, 41, pled guilty to sixteen counts of Aggravated Child Abuse and one count of Child Abuse. He agreed to cooperate and testify in the trial of his co-defendant and wife, Jessica Ann Cox. In a sentencing hearing today, Judge Bob McGee imposed the sixteen-year sentence.

In a six-day trial in March, Assistant District Attorney Ashley McDermott and Deputy District Attorney Leland Price explained to the jury that on May 28, 2013, McIntosh’s two sons escaped from their home at 834 Canton Hollow Road where they had been handcuffed to a kitchen cabinet. The fourteen and sixteen-year-old victims walked to Farragut High School where school custodians called 911, and the boys were taken to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Knox County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Tonia McFarland responded to the hospital while other investigators with the Family Crisis Unit responded to Canton Hollow Road. The victims were both malnourished with injuries to their wrists due to repeatedly being handcuffed. One victim also had significant injuries to his feet. The victims were forensically interviewed at ChildHelp where they recounted that Cox and McIntosh handcuffed them for hours on end, deprived them of food, and struck them with items like mallets and rolling pins. The victims were also submerged in ice baths and forced to kneel on uncooked rice.

Cox was convicted at trial and sentenced to serve twenty-four years in prison.

If you have any questions, please contact Sean McDermott at 865-215-2515 or Sean.McDermott@knoxcounty.org. For more information about the District Attorney’s Office, visit our website at dag.knoxcountytn.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.