A Bristol Township man who admitted raping an adolescent girl repeatedly over a two-year span was sentenced Monday to serve seven to 20 years in state prison.

Darrius Prince, 35, of the first block of Wildflower Road, was sentenced after pleading guilty to rape of a child and other sexual crimes in Bucks County Common Pleas Court.

Prince agreed to plead guilty after his lawyer failed in an effort to suppress incriminating statements he made before being charged. The crimes came to light after Prince went to the emergency room of Lower Bucks Hospital, saying he wanted to kill himself over what he had done to the girl.

Police said Prince had sex with the girl in his car or in his home on roughly a monthly basis for two years. Prince told investigators the assaults began when the victim was 11.

“I’m very sorry for what I did,” Prince told Judge Raymond F. McHugh. “I’m not going to ever let it happen again.”

The plea agreement, negotiated between Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy and Administrative Deputy Public Defender Ann P. Russavage-Faust, called for Prince to be sentenced to seven to 20 years in state prison, followed by 20 years of consecutive probation.

Prince also is required to register with state police as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

McHugh said he was accepting the plea agreement as a means of sparing the victim from having to testify at a trial. “The trauma and damage to her would have been even worse than it is now” had the case gone to trial, the judge said.

Calling Prince’s crimes “offensive” and “heinous,” McHugh told Prince he “would be receiving a much, much longer sentence than you are receiving” had he not pleaded guilty and instead been convicted at trial.

The case was investigated by the Bristol Township Police Department.

Contact: Kristin M. McElroy, 215.348.6336, kmmcelroy@buckscounty.org