PARIS — Gary Noyes, 43, of Buckfield was sentenced to two 25-year prison terms Wednesday, after pleading guilty to two charges of gross sexual assault in Oxford County Superior Court.

Justice Robert Clifford announced the sentence and suspended all but seven and a half years of it. Noyes was indicted by a grand jury in April on six counts of gross sexual assault involving two juvenile girls between 2006 and 2012. He was arrested in December 2012 after a Maine State Police investigation.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne told Clifford that the case came to light after one of the girls reported the assaults in a letter to her school’s guidance counselor. The guidance counselor, as required by state law, reported it to authorities. 

Following the sentencing, one of the girls stood before the court and, with the assistance of an advocate, read an emotional statement detailing the impact of the attacks on her. 

“It made me feel small and useless, like my existence meant nothing; I was just here to be used,” she said. 

“Every day I had to fight to get out of bed because I just didn’t want to deal with it. More than once, I thought how easy it would be to end it, but I kept going because I wanted to rise above what I’ve been through,” she said.

“Most importantly, I wanted to show people that everyone has a voice; you just need to find it. It had some positive and negative effects, but I’m turning it into a strength so it doesn’t bring me down. That’s my choice and I want others to know that they can make that choice too,” she told the court.

Noyes was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom after the sentencing. Under the terms of his 18-year probation, he is to have no contact with the victims or any girls under age 16 and is required to register as a lifetime sex offender.

pmcguire@sunjournal.com

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