MALONE — A Moira man was sentenced Monday to five years in state prison for sexually abusing a then 12-year-old girl in 2003.

Martin M. Manning, 41, of 2233 Franklin County Road 5 was convicted by a jury in March of first-degree sexual abuse for having sexual contact with the child while she slept.

A Planned Parenthood sexual-assault-services representative, Lori Campbell-Perry, read a letter the victim wrote to County Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr. over the objection of defense attorney Mark McCormick, who said information heard at the trial did not have to be repeated in open court.

‘SURVIVOR’

The judge disagreed and heard the letter, in which the victim explains her thoughts and feelings nearly six years after the abuse occurred.

The teen said she initially blamed herself for what happened and had thoughts of suicide and running away.

“I felt if I ran away from home everyone would be better off, and they could go back to the way things were,” she wrote. “I felt I wasn’t worthy enough for anything or anyone.”

The victim said she got mixed up with the wrong crowd at school and started to drink when she was 14, saying “it made me feel better, less depressed, and I could smile and have a good time without thinking about it.”

But once a youth leader at a local church reached out to her, listened and counseled her, the victim told the judge, “I decided I was going to overcome what happened and stop blaming myself.

“I kept up my good grades, stopped drinking and started trusting some people,” she said, adding that “I wasn’t strong enough at 12 years old to go through what I have in the past 10 months.”

She still has issues with anger and trusting men but said she is getting better.

“I’m not the strongest person in the world, but I overcame this and realized Martin Manning doesn’t deserve any more of my tears or my life,” the letter states.

“I decided I wasn’t going to be a victim anymore, I was going to be a survivor.”