UTICA (AP) -- A 50-year-old former state prison guard has been sentenced to more than 40 years behind bars for sexually abusing two young girls at his home in Oneida County.

Donald Hughes of Floyd was sentenced on Wednesday. A jury in January found him guilty of attempted first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child.

During the four-day trial, the girls, now 10 and 12, described how Hughes forced them to touch his body.

Hughes insisted in court Wednesday that he didn't mean to do anything wrong and said his actions were "taken out of context."

The prosecutor read a statement from one of the girls saying "Poppy is a bad man."

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