The ugly saga of Dr. David Evanko is over.

Most of those who still might have had doubts about his guilt, even though he was convicted at a trial last year, had any remaining trust in him extinguished on Monday when the once-respected physician pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two boys during the years they were residents of Summit Academy.

Evanko was sentenced to serve 5½ to 14 ½ years in prison. Unfortunately, though, the sentence will run and expire concurrently with the 6- to 15-year sentence Evanko is serving for sexually assaulting a boy he’d met in the Boy Scouts in the 1990s.

Many of those who feel sickened by the thought of what Evanko did believe the doctor should have been required to serve consecutive sentences — when the sentence stemming from the Boy Scout case ended, the sentence from the Summit Academy case would begin.

But for various reasons the courts don’t always mete out sentences that seem warranted.

Evanko also was accused of sexually assaulting another Boy Scout during his years as a Scout leader. But after a few hearings, it was agreed that the statute of limitations had run out regarding one of the alleged victims and the state attorney general’s office withdrew the charges related to him.

What made Evanko turn the wrong corner in his private and professional lives no one might ever know. Here was a doctor who was highly regarded and trusted in the community, not only in connection with treatment of his patients but also in terms of his community involvement, such as with the Boy Scouts.

Years after the allegations about him sexually assaulting boys first surfaced — years during which he denied any such activity — many in the community, especially patients he had treated over the years, remained confident about his innocence.

With Evanko’s plea on Monday, there remains little, if any, basis for such a belief to remain.

Based on the Scout and Summit Academy cases, Robert McGraw, the state trooper who investigated and charged the doctor, summed up Evanko appropriately as well as the inadequacy of his sentence.

“David Evanko is a coward who physically and psychologically preys on children,” McGraw said. “Unfortunately, he won’t be spending the rest of his life in jail because of the statute of limitations.”

In the Boy Scout case in which he was found guilty, Evanko allegedly molested the youth more than 100 times when the Scout was between 13 and 18 years old.

On Monday, Evanko pleaded guilty to 10 more crimes — five for each victim — in the academy case. Evanko inappropriately touched the boys when he was supposed to be treating them for genital warts.

Evanko’s story is a sad chapter for the medical profession and for Butler County.

Prison is the right place for him — albeit for a longer stint than currently required.