An East Drumore Township Bible study leader was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation, after he pleaded guilty last week to indecently assaulting a prepubescent girl at a church and woman in separate incidents that took place years apart.

Michael Todd Hess, of the 100 block of Church Street, did not dispute the allegations levied against him as Judge Dennis Reinaker sentenced him July 28 on two counts of aggravated indecent assault, one count each of unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and three counts of indecent assault without consent.

Hess, 50, assaulted the first victim, then about seven years old, in the classroom of a Providence Township church in the 200 block of Cinder Road around 30 to 36 times in 2011.

Those assaults occurred “almost every week during the school year,” Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick, who prosecuted both cases, told the court.

The now-adult victim, flanked by numerous family members and churchgoers, provided a letter which Haverstick read to the court in which she said she once considered Hess a close family friend, but “growing up I realized what happened to me was wrong.”

“All those years I felt like I had no voice,” the victim wrote in her letter to the court.

For the next 12 years the victim said she felt ashamed and “dirty” by what had happened to her, but was eventually encouraged by her family to speak up in order to protect other young girls from Hess. The victim also thanked Pennsylvania State Police for their work in bringing Hess to justice.

Both Haverstick and Judge Reinaker commended the victim for her courage in coming forward with her allegations and addressing the court. Haverstick told the court that the case shows how “the lifetime impact of what [assault] does to children is real.”

Speaking to the court prior to his sentencing, Hess apologized for his actions, which he called “brutal” and said he wished he could undo the damage he had done.

Years later Hess similarly assaulted a second victim, this time a 21-year-old woman, at an East Drumore Township residence in the first block of Mount Hope Road in January 2016.

Pennsylvania State Police Troopers Nicholas Reginella and Brian McNally filed the charges.