EUFAULA, Okla.- Michelle McCutchan, an Oklahoma teacher, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted of raping two 16-year old male students, the Daily News reports.
The 40-year-old veteran Oklahoma teacher gave a tearful courtroom testimony, admitting that the sexual abuse that she suffered as a child is what drove her to engage in abusive sexual relationships with her students as an adult, local reports say.
McCutchan took the stand pleading for mercy, telling the court that she was sexually abused by a family member from the age of 12 to 15.
“There’s no one in this room that can hate me more than I hate myself,” McCutchan said in court.
McCutchan was ultimately sentenced to fifteen years for two counts of second degree-rape, ten years for two counts of sodomy, fifteen years for child neglect, and five consecutively running years for three counts of providing alcohol to minors.
These charges are within Oklahoma’s 85 percent rule which mandates that McCutchan must be in prison for nearly 13 years before she is eligible for parole.
Associate District Judge James Pratt offered little sympathy after hearing testimonies regarding the former Checotah middle school teacher’s psychological plight, reportedly saying that her history of abuse was no excuse for her to “create more victims.”
Pratt added that Wednesday was the first time that McCutchan had even expressed any remorse for raping the teens.
McCutchan even testified that she would have continued her sexual escapades if she had not been caught by her husband, the Daily News reported. (CBS NEWS)
