PARIS — A former Waterford man was sentenced Thursday at Oxford County Superior Court to 14 years in prison, with all but eight years suspended, for sexually abusing a child for more than 10 years.
Keith Mooney, 43, pleaded guilty to a single count of Class A gross sexual assault.
Mooney was arrested in August 2016 by the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant issued by Maine State Police, which started investigating the case.
The victim, who is now an adult, told state police Detective Lauren Edstrom of the Major Crimes Unit that Mooney began abusing her from the age of 2, at first touching her inappropriately and then forcing her to perform oral sex, according to an affidavit. The incidents occurred when she was unsupervised with Mooney, including on fishing trips, and in Biddeford, Waterford and Norway. It continued until 2009, she told Edstrom.
Shortly before Mooney was sentenced, Judge Susan Oram allowed an acquaintance of the victim to read a letter from the victim to Mooney.
“Today, I stand here not as a victim, but a survivor,” she wrote. “It took me a long time to realize I did nothing wrong.”
“My earliest memory is the first encounter, when I was about 2 years old, and the most recent and last encounter was when I was 12 years old,” she continued. “I remember both encounters clearly, and it was a 10-year time span of sexual abuse that I endured and survived. . . . I feel as though I can breathe again, and that I am breaking free. He does not control me anymore, and I have found my voice.”
When Mooney is released from prison, he will serve 10 years of probation. Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Winter said the probation was because of the severity of the offense and the age of the victim when the abuse took place.
Winter said probation conditions include taking sex-offender counseling, having no contact with the victim or the victim’s family, having no contact with children under the age of 12, and not using or possessing alcohol.
Mooney will be subject to random search and testing, Winter said.
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