Son Accused of Abusing Cancer Victim

A Marietta man is being held in the without bond on charges that he hit and denied food to his cancer-stricken father, continuing a history of criminal abuse against the senior citizen.

Gregory Horn, 40, was living in his parents’ home in the 1100 block of South Atlanta Road when he was arrested there Monday evening, according to jail booking records.

He is accused of not letting his father have food, hitting his father and cutting a phone cord so the 70-year-old couldn’t call for help, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The father has pancreatic and colon cancer, the AJC said.

The son is charged with felony cruelty to someone 65 or older, misdemeanor criminal trespassing and misdemeanor obstruction of a 911 call, jail records show.

Monday’s arrest came only 10 days after Horn was released from the Cobb jail after serving 60 days for battery against a family member and criminal trespassing.

The Official Code of Georgia Annotated says the first incident of family violence battery is a misdemeanor, but the second and any subsequent incidents are felonies punishable by one to five years in prison.

The battery that led to Horn’s arrest Dec. 19 included his pulling a phone off the wall and hitting his father in the head with it, the AJC said.

Horn also served three months in jail in 2010 after choking his father and two months in 2009 after hitting his father with a mop handle, the AJC said, citing spokeswoman Nancy Bodiford.