A woman in Hamilton County, Indiana prostituted her daughter for drugs. According to a report by Cincinnati Enquirer, April Corcoran could no longer fund her heroin addiction and decided to give her daughter in exchange.
Corcoran, 32, prostituted her 11-year-old daughter to her 42-year-old drug dealer, Shandell Willingham. Willingham forced the 11-year-old child to perform oral sex, anal sex and videotaped some of the acts. After the child was raped, Corcoran would give her daughter heroin as a reward. However, the child hated the drug and vomited every time she was told to use it.
Once the girl moved in with her father, she told him of the abuse she endured at the hands of her mother and the drug dealer. The child’s father reported Corcoran to local authorities and they arrested her and Willingham. The girl is now 13-years-old and suicidal. She is receiving counseling and taking medication, but the trauma will have a lasting effect on her ability to cope.
The incident reveals how some people just don’t have the mental capacity and wherewithal to be parents. Corcoran should have never had the opportunity to raise a child. She put her child in a position to face unimaginable sexual, physical and mental abuse. Corcoran’s drug use and complete neglect of her daughter has destroyed her child’s self-esteem and will affect her ability to move forward.
The judge in Corcoran’s case, Leslie Ghiz, called it, “the worst thing that has come before [her] court.” She never witnessed a parent place such a burden on a child. On July 18, Ghiz reacted to the crime by sentencing Corcoran to 51 years to life in prison. Willingham will be sentenced after he goes to trial for a drug charge.
Throughout Corcoran’s trial, she never apologized to her daughter for what she allowed to occur.
