A Prospect man was sentenced Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court to serve 39 to 78 months in state prison for sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s 13-year-old daughter, who has autism.

The sentencing of Alan Free, 62, comes after a jury found him guilty, following a two-day trial in June, of felony charges of statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault, and misdemeanor charges of corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children and indecent assault of a person under 16 years old.

Free was found not to be a sexual predator, but his conviction on the felony charges means he has to register with state police for the rest of his life as Tier III sexual offender under Megan’s Law.

Butler Township police filed the charges following the June 11, 2021, incident.

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Timothy McCune said he received written statements from the victim, her siblings and her mother. A prosecutor asked for a harsher sentence, and nine people, including Free’s father and stepmother, spoke on his behalf as character witnesses.

Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Simon said the sexual assault was the result of Free’s “methodical exploitation” of the victim. He asked for a sentence of 5½ to 40 years in prison, which is in the aggravated range of sentencing guidelines.

Defense attorney Al Lindsay said he opposed a sentence in the aggravated range.

The character witnesses said Free was active in church, helped other church members, cared for his elderly parents and loves his family.

Several of the witnesses said they have known Free for eight months, since he joined a church’s Bible study group for men. They said he volunteered to help people in need and described him as a hardworking, good man who loves his family.

Free’s father, Gilbert Polliard, said Free hasn’t been allowed to see his own children for a year. He said he has arthritis, and Free helps him with work at his house. His stepmother said Free is dependable and he helps her and Polliard. Free did not address the court.

According to testimony from the trial, Free and his girlfriend lived together with their four children and two children she had from a previous relationship. The victim was one of the children she had from the previous relationship.

The girlfriend placed motion-activated cameras in the house, including in the bedroom where the assault took place. Some of the photos were used as evidence in the trial.

McCune said the image of one of those photos was “burned in my mind.”

He said he believes the jury’s verdict was the correct verdict, and he would issue a sentence in the standard range.

The sentence includes 12 to 24 months in prison for the statutory sexual assault charge and a concurrent sentence of 30 to 60 months for the aggravated indecent assault charge. In addition, Free was given consecutive sentences of three to six months for corruption of minors and six to 12 months for endangering the welfare of children, and concurrent sentence of three to six months for indecent assault.

Free’s Tier III offender status means he has to submit to photographing and fingerprinting, and report his residence, vehicle ownership, employment, phone number, email address and internet identification to police for the rest of his life.