Former Church Volunteer Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Battery

By Kristal Dixon
The Patch
May 3, 2014

http://canton-ga.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/former-church-volunteer-pleads-guilty-to-child-sexual-battery

A former church volunteer with First Baptist Canton pleaded guilty to child sexual battery.

Matthew Brent Sheffield, 31, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of sexual battery against a minor and received an eight year probation sentence.

Sheffield was sentenced on April 18 by Judge N. Jackson Harris in Cherokee County Superior Court. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

A Cherokee County grand jury in April 2011 indicted the volunteer in the June 2010 sexual battery of the boy, who was 14 years old at the time.

According to the April 2011 indictment, Sheffield placed "his hand on the thigh and leg of the said child and did rub the said child's leg, with the intent to arouse and satisfy the sexual desires of the said accused and child." He also "touched the buttocks of the said child."

A lawsuit filed in August 2012 accused the church of allowing a volunteer with a history of abuse to have access to children.