A 51-year-old Havre de Grace man, who acknowledged fathering his stepdaughter's three children, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in state prison for sexual child abuse and perverted sexual practices.
Harford Circuit Court Judge Cypert O. Whitfill ordered the man to serve the sentences -- 15 years on the abuse charge and 10 years on the perverted practice charge -- concurrently. The judge also recommended that he serve his time at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup.
To protect the victim's identity, The Sun is not identifying the man.
The victim, now 37, testified at the man's trial in December that he began abusing her when she was 9 years old. Her first child was born in 1974, nine months to the day after her stepfather began a Christmas Eve tradition of having sex with her, the victim said.
The man's three-day trial focused on a narrower period of time -- from Aug. 4, 1973, when the family moved from New Jersey to Hickory, until September 1975, when the victim turned 18 years old.
Sgt. Jordan Watts, a sheriff's investigator, testified that the stepfather cooperated with authorities and acknowledged that his stepdaughter's three children, born in 1974, 1976 and 1978, were his.
The man said the victim's mother never knew about the abuse, the sergeant said.
The stepfather's relationship with the victim continued until she moved out of the house in 1984, at age 27. That year, the victim's mother divorced him.