CAMDEN, Maine — A former Camden resident who admitted to sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison to be followed by 25 years of supervised release.
Nicholas Emerson, 29, who has been in jail since his arrest in October 2015, was sentenced by Justice William Stokes in Knox County Unified Court on one count of gross sexual assault.
The victim’s father contacted Camden police after the child reported the assault, according to Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody. Emerson admitted both in a recorded telephone call to a family member and later to Camden Police Detective Curt Andrick that he had assaulted the child.
In court Thursday, Emerson apologized for what he did.
“I screwed up. It never should have happened. It should never have happened to me,” Emerson said.
He said he had been sexually abused as a child but said that instead of doing what he did, he should have been the child’s protector. He said he would use his eight years in prison to better himself so that he could help people when he is released.
Emerson accepted a sentence agreement that calls for the eight years. Instead of probation, he will be on supervised release, which means if he were to violate terms of release any time during those 25 years, he could face up to an additional quarter century in prison.