A serial paedophile will be physically and chemically castrated after he was caught sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl.

 

Thomas Allen McCartney, 37, has been labelled one of the worst child predators in the US state of Louisiana.

 

He agreed to the castration on Tuesday, August 19, as part of a plea deal to reduce his prison sentence.

 

McCartney will still be locked up for 40 years for his crimes, according to local station Fox 12.

 

Louisiana is the first and only state in the US to allow surgical castration as punishment for sex crimes, although it has allowed chemical castration since 2008.

 

The new law only came into effect in August, making McCartney’s case likely one of the first.

 

The child predator was arrested in 2023 after a mother walked in on him sexually abusing her seven-year-old daughter.

 

He used a gun to try to escape before being apprehended in Houston, Texas.

 

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday, August 19, to attempted first-degree rape of a child under the age of 13.

 

Vernon Parish District Attorney Terry Lambright said: “This is a horrific crime that never should have happened. Thomas McCartney is a predator that needs to be locked away from others in our community.”

 

McCartney was already a Tier 3 sex offender in Louisiana after he was previously convicted of attempted aggravated rape in 2011.

 

The predator was also detained on two counts of aggravated rape of a 12-year-old child in 2010.

 

Back in 2006, he was also arrested on one count of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.