A New Castle area man who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at Moraine State Park will spend up to 44 months in state prison.

“I apologize for my actions. I realize what I did was wrong,” 41-year-old Jeffery J. Locke of Scott Township said during his sentencing today in Butler County court.

Locke, who pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault, was sentenced by Judge William Shaffer to a plea arrangement made earlier with the county district attorney’s office: 22 to 44 months incarceration followed by 76 months of state probation.

The victim, a resident of Scranton, did not speak in court.

Court records say the incident occurred after the girl contacted Locke, who was an acquaintance of the girl’s mother, on the Internet when she was looking for a summer job.

Locke offered her a job to help him pick produce, and he traveled to Scranton to pick her up in July. A day later, on July 19, the girl accompanied Locke to Moraine State Park to fish.

There, Locke sexually assaulted the girl in his pickup truck after sharing marijuana with her.