Thomas Sweeney

A prison sentence of more than 12 years and the severing of a mother-daughter relationship is the result of multiple sexual assaults by a Fall River man on a 13-year-old girl in early 2008.

Citing a need to protect the public and ensure a message is sent that sexual assault of a child is unacceptable, Judge Alan White sentenced Thomas J. Sweeney, 58, at a hearing Tuesday in Columbia County Court to 12 1/2 years in prison followed by 12 1/2 years on extended supervision.

Sweeney pleaded no contest in March to a felony charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 16.

Sweeney was charged in April in the sexual assault of a child when the girl, then 13, told authorities that she and Sweeney, who was 56 at the time, had sex "a lot" for several months after an adult noticed a hickey on the girl's neck, according the criminal complaint.

Calling Sweeney's actions extremely aggravated, White said Sweeney used the girl as his toy, and that Sweeney had a "disturbing mind-set" because Sweeney told authorities the assaults did not seem wrong to him at the time.

"You had to know these things were wrong," White said to Sweeney.

Sweeney's defense attorney, Mark Bennett of Portage, requested a lengthy probation sentence and jail time for Sweeney. He argued that standardized sex offender tests have indicated that Sweeney represents a low risk to re-offend.

The assaults had a severe impact on the girl, who suffers from flashbacks and loss of trust in adults, said Assistant District Attorney Linda Hoffman.

"(Sweeney) is minimizing these offenses," said Hoffman, who had requested the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision for Sweeney.

The girl is too afraid to live with her mother because of Sweeney's assaults, according to the girl's mother, who spoke tearfully at the hearing.

Sweeney and the girl's mother were in a relationship at the time of the assaults, which took place between January and April 2008, according to court records.

Speaking at the hearing, the girl requested a lengthy prison sentence for Sweeney.

The girl said she lost friends when she had to change schools because of Sweeney's "terrible act," and that she no longer trusts her mother or her mother's friends.

"What you have done to me and others is unacceptable," the girl told Sweeney.

Sweeney apologized at the hearing to the girl and her family; he said he hopes they will be able to forgive him in time.

"I blame no one but myself for what's happened," Sweeney said.

The girl's father spoke angrily to Sweeney during the hearing.

"You've changed her life," he said. "He took her innocence from her. He made her grow up way too fast."

sgreen@capitalnewspapers.com

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