An Ansonia man was sent to prison for seven years for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
John Sanders, 47, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor, and violating probation in front of Judge Frank Iannotti at Superior Court in Milford.
Prosecutor Cornelius Kelly said in court Sanders forcibly molested the girl at an Olson Drive residence and tried to have sex with her.
Police were alerted to the crime the morning after it happened when the girl told school officials, Kelly said.
The victim also told police that Sanders gave her a phone and asked her to take naked pictures of herself.
He faced up to eight years behind bars at his Sept. 28 sentencing, during which he said he was sorry.
“I would like to apologize to the court and to the victim,” Sanders said. “I really hurt two people, her and myself, and I know this can drag a lifetime. I’m truly sorry for my actions.”
Sanders’ lawyer, Public Defender Susan Brown, said Sanders was especially aware of how serious his crime was because he was a sexual assault victim himself as a minor.
Sanders also suffers from mental health issues including bipolar disorder, she said.
Kelly conceded Sanders was remorseful but asked the judge to hand down as severe a punishment as possible.
“Unfortunately, he cannot take it back, and (the victim) is going to have to live with the conduct and the assault that was perpetrated on her by Mr. Sanders,” he said.
Judge Iannotti said the case was hard to understand.
He said he didn’t doubt Sanders had a rough life.
But he said that’s all the more reason he should have been looking out for others — like the girl he molested.
“Because your life was so tragic, because these things happened to you, should you have gone the other way here and made sure that nothing happened to this young girl,” the judge said.
“I didn’t have your life, I understand that, but I guess I would have hoped that you would have gone the other way and said ‘These terrible things happened to me, I can’t let them happen to anybody else.’ But you did.”
The judge also noted that Sanders had a criminal record going back more than 25 years including convictions for drug dealing, assault, and robbery.
He then sentenced Sanders to a 12-year prison term to be suspended after seven years, to be followed by five years of probation.
The judge ordered Sanders to be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life and to have no contact with the victim for 50 years.
