Darcy Gorron
Darcy Gorron claimed to be a devout Christian when he got caught up in sex-assault charges last year.
In November, a local jury convicted Gorron of molesting a preteen girl.
"I love children as a father, not as a predator," he said at sentencing Tuesday morning. "I'm not perfect; nobody is."
Lancaster County Judge Louis Farina told Gorron actions speak louder than words — or beliefs.
"The jury has told us your professed Christian beliefs have serious flaws," Farina said while ordering a 10-to-20-year state prison sentence. "If you are truly a Christian, you accept this as your due and your penance."
The victim, dressed in a purple jacket, sat close to her mother as they watched Gorron handcuffed and taken away.
The mother told Farina her family was damaged emotionally and financially. They lost their home, she said, when she lost her job amidst the charges.
"He took an innocent child that was full of life and love and took her to a very dark place," the mother said, standing a couple steps from Gorron. "I feel as though we were targeted."
The Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era isn't identifying the victim or her mother. Gorron was a close acquaintance of the family when he assaulted the girl between 2009 and last year, according to court testimony.
The girl told her mother last year that Gorron often "touches her," a police affidavit indicates.
Gorron, a 32-year-old Manheim man, never admitted to assaulting the girl during a five-minute statement to the judge.
"I've never been that way," he said. "It's hurtful to be here. I never thought I'd be here. … I wish this wasn't happening."
He also denied the crimes when he testified at trial last year.
The victim, now 8, testified at trial about the abuse. She didn't speak in court on Tuesday.
Farina told Gorron that he better face up to his crimes in prison or he won't be paroled after 10 years.
"Unless you admit to what you did, you're going to stay there," he said. "You might even do 20 (years). This will test your Christian beliefs."
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