Hickey convicted and sentences to multiple life sentences.

Corey Hickey was convicted by a jury May 21, 2026 on a 31 count indictment which charged him with 3 counts of Rape of a Child under 10 years old, 4 counts of Aggravated Child Molestation, 3 counts of child molestation and 21 counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children.

Hickey targeted his roommate’s 7 year old daughter and sexually assaulted her over a 6 month period. In addition to the sexual assaults, he recorded the acts of molestation on his cell phone. Hickey uploaded 2 images he had taken of the victim to Chat GPT. The images were flagged by Chat GPT and were later sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for investigation. A cyber tip was forwarded to the Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit of the GBI. Within 3 days of receiving the tip, Special Agent Ethan Brown had verified the information contained in the tip as well as confirmed the images were made in Putnam County.

Hickey was arrested and his cell phone was seized. After a forensic evaluation was conducted on his phone, numerous videos of his sexual abuse of the victim were found. Additional warrants were obtained for rape, aggravated child molestation, child molestation and the additional child sexual abuse material victim. In total, law enforcement located over 4800 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his phone. Over 400 more images were found in his Google drive.

The prosecution was led by Chief Assistant District Attorney Alley Mauldin and assisted by ADA Carter Harwell. After a 4 day trial, the jury deliberated for approximately 45 minutes. Chief Judge Alison T. Burleson sentenced Hickey to 2 sentences of life without parole to run consecutive to one another, 3 life sentences with the possibility of parole, to run consecutive, followed by 220 years in prison. It is believed to be the longest prison sentence in the circuit.

The District Attorney’s office would like to extend its sincere thanks to the GBI CEACC unit, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and the Crescent House Child Advocacy Center for all of the hard work put into removing this predator from the streets.