After hearing the victim’s mother plead for justice Tuesday, Judge R. Douglas Holt ordered a man accused of two counts of molesting a young girl to prison for five years.

Clark was arrested in July 2007 after the victim and two witnesses told police of the assault.

Holt sentenced Jeremy Daniel Clark, 25, of Safford to serve five years in the Arizona Department of Corrections on a charge of sexual abuse, a class three felony. Clark was given 321 days credit for time served and is eligible for a good behavior early release credit of one day for every six served. That means he could be released from prison near the beginning of 2012. Holt sentenced Clark to lifetime sexual probation upon his release, and Clark must register as a sex offender for his second count, attempted molestation of a child, another class three felony.

Clark previously signed a plea agreement with the state saying he did not wish to contest the charges. His attorney, Wendell Hughes, said his client did so to maintain his innocence without risking a longer sentence if found guilty at a trial. He added that his client could not show any remorse because that would be counter to the credibility of his denial that anything happened.

Holt said he believed the accusations of the victim and two witnesses who were at the residence during the molestation. He told Clark that in sexual behavior therapy, it is necessary to admit to what he had done. Refusal to do so could result in a failure to complete therapy, and that could violate his probation after his release. Holt said if Clark violates probation, he would probably receive an additional 10 years in prison.

“There are various levels of sex offender treatment that you must comply with,” he said. “I’ve given this warning a number of times, and I give it to you: Sex offender treatment does not tolerate denial.”

Holt said there are many different tests, including polygraph tests, that Clark will have to submit to.

“If you continue to deny that you did what you did to this young lady, you will be in violation of your sex offender treatment,” he said.

The victim and her mother addressed the court and spoke of what they have had to go through since the event occurred. The victim’s mother implored Judge Holt to make sure Clark has no contact with her daughter or any other child ever again.

“We all have to answer to God, and he is no exception,” she said. “I don’t want him to ever be able to get near my daughter again – or any other children for that matter. He’s a very sick person.”

Judge Holt ordered Clark to have no contact with any pornography and no contact with any minor.

In previous correspondence with the court, Clark stated he wanted to get a good job, buy a house and serve as a minister for area youths.

“Start a youth ministry – no way,” Holt said. “There’s no way, as a sex offender, that the court or probation will countenance you becoming a youth minister for any church. You will have no contact with kids, period.”