She decided then and there she would one day tell her story: that her stepfather had been molesting her about once a month since she was 8 years old.

But she waited another decade to tell. She was afraid he'd hurt her as he hurt her mother, a widow who'd lost her first husband to cancer after they'd had three children together.

The girl never even told her mother, not until she turned 18.

Now 20, she recounted her story for Judge Allen Baddour in Chatham County Superior Court on Monday. It is The News & Observer's policy to generally not name victims of sexual assault.

Baddour sentenced Murnice Felton Chandler, 44, of Sanford, to between eight and 10 years in prison after Chandler pleaded guilty to 21 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. The judge also ordered him to wear a Global Positioning System anklet monitor for the rest of his life, a tool the General Assembly gave judges only last year.

The Department of Correction has used the GPS monitors since Jan. 1, 2007, and about 120 felons are currently wearing the anklets. About 100 of those are on the system for life.

The law allows judges to impose the lifelong satellite monitoring on repeat or sexually violent offenders and in cases with "aggravating" factors. In Chandler's case, the aggravating factor was that he violated a position of trust.

Chandler was to go to trial Tuesday but pleaded a day early. "It was unexpected," said assistant district attorney Kayley Taber.

Efforts to reach Chandler's attorney, Julian Mack, on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Chandler took an Alford plea, meaning he decided it was in his best interest to plead guilty because of the prosecution's evidence against him but did not admit guilt. He'd already been convicted of physically assaulting four other women, harassing another and threatening another.

The prosecution presented evidence Monday that Chandler had physically abused the mother, but he was convicted only of harassing her with a phone call in April 2006, about a month after the girl reported the molestation to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

The sexual abuse ended in 1998 after the mother kicked her husband out of the house. They divorced, but the girl's mother never reported his abuse to police, though the girl had watched him unscrew a hot light bulb and burn the mother's leg with it, Taber said.

"That's just demented, and that was witnessed by the child," said Taber.

The girl also said Chandler had carved a Satanic symbol into her mother's wall, and Taber showed photographs of the vandalism at Monday's plea hearing. "When she was being assaulted, [the girl] recalled looking up and seeing the 666 carved into the wall," said Taber. "He had a long history of violence and abuse of alcohol during the relationship. ... [The mother] was embarrassed by that and terrified to report it to police."

Taber said the victim reported that Chandler had molested another child too, but that person has not come forward to press criminal charges.

"It's important that if there are other victims out there that they should feel free to report that to law enforcement or seek help from a counselling agency," Taber said. "It's important that they reach out to someone and talk about what they've been through."

Family Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Chatham County, the group that visited the victim's classroom that day, has been teaching fourth-graders about "good touch" and "bad touch" every year since 1984. Co-executive director Jo Sanders said that's not true in every county.

"It's completely a county-by-county decision," she said.

Every year, said the other co-director, Kathy Hodges, five to 10 children come forward with information that leads to a referral to a social service agency. Some children report abuse as soon as they realize they can; others wait weeks, months or even years.

Hodges said victims might be afraid to report abuse for fear of being taken away from their families or watching a family member go to jail. She said abusers often plant the idea that no one will believe them.

"There's a lot of psychological warfare involved," she said. "They're able to move forward with options when they feel safe enough to do so."

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