An Evans City man was sentenced Wednesday to a minimum of 4 years in prison for assaulting a young girl multiple times between April 2006 and Mother's Day 2007.

Michael McMillen, 41, was convicted March 18 of assaulting the girl, now 15, and he will have to register his address with state police for the rest of his life.

McMillen's sentence, based on a verdict of guilt to eight crimes, including aggravated indecent assault and statutory sexual assault, carries a maximum penalty of 8 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 4.

He also was ordered to pay $17,926 in restitution to the victim and serve 120 months of probation upon his release from prison.

The sentence was imposed by Butler County Judge William Shaffer.

McMillen's ex-wife and a family friend asked the judge for leniency before sentencing.

"We have a 14-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son, and I have never witnessed him, in any regard, have any problems with our children," said Candace Schultz, McMillen's ex-wife.

"He opened his home to children, helping to keep them out of trouble, and that probably worked against him in this instance."

Terry Keasey, who said she has known McMillen since the two were in elementary school, said McMillen treats children with the utmost respect, never being callous or unfair.

"I have trusted him with my children, and I would do so again," she said.

Neither McMillen nor the girl, who wrote a victim impact statement not read at sentencing, spoke in court Wednesday.

During McMillen's trial, the victim told the jury she initially met McMillen when she accompanied her older sister to meet his niece at his apartment. The girl said she returned to McMillen's apartment numerous times with her sister and spent time with McMillen's daughter.

The assaults, the girl said, began one night when she had her clothes on and after the defendant drank too much beer.

The girl also is the alleged victim in a similar, but unrelated case against a different defendant still pending in Beaver County.

McMillen, who acted as his own attorney during the trial, presented as witnesses other teens and adults who claimed to be in his home at the time of the assaults.

He argued the small size of his apartment coupled with the number of people there made it impossible the assaults could have occurred without someone seeing or hearing them.