CALDWELL -- A Boise man will spend up to 20 years in prison for lewd conduct with a minor. Canyon County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor says 42-year-old Anthony Craig Ireland was sentenced Monday.
Judge Molly J. Huskey ordered Ireland to serve a minimum of 5 years, up to 20 years in prison. Ireland must also register as a sex offender, have no contact with victims or their family and pay the victims a $5,000 civil penalty.
Prosecutors say the victims were family friends who were lying in bed and often sleeping while Ireland engaged in manual to genital and manual to breast contact with them. He later confessed to police that the touching had been going on since 2006, when one of the victims was only four.
He also admitted to molesting children as a teenager, viewing naked children on the Internet and engaging in bestiality.
The child's mother testified in court about how this crime continues to haunt her family. "We are grieving the loss of friendship and the trust we both cherished and grieving for the impact this is having and will continue to have on the girls," she said.
"Mr. Ireland is a pedophile who poses a tremendous danger to children," said Taylor. "Because of his attraction to young children, a prison sentence is the only option."
