Two girls under the age of 13 came face to face Thursday with the sexual predator who targeted them — a 41-year-old man — during his sentencing.

In February, Michael J. Steinhiser of Cabot pleaded guilty to two charges of corruption of minors, third-degree felonies.

Judge William Shaffer sentenced Steinhiser to seven years of intermediate punishment, with the first six months in jail followed by six months in house arrest. The rest of his sentence will be served similar to probation. He must also register as a tier-1 sex offender for 15 years, meaning that the state will have to be made aware of his every move during that time.

The girls were called to make a statement against the man, who police said had taken nude photographs of them with a cell phone on multiple occasions and had one of the victims “slide down his belly” while his pants were pulled down in 2017. But they were too distraught to say anything, leaving their mother to do the talking.

“Obviously, they're still majorly affected by the events,” the mother said, beginning to cry as her voice cracked. “The fact that they're standing here to face him makes me so proud.”

The mother said that one of the girls has been in therapy and the other “has kept it all in.”

She continued, “One of them can't take showers regularly because of what he did to them.”