A Criuleni man, 49, has been sentenced by a district court to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing a five-year-girl periodically for a year.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said the man had been using physical and psychological coercion against the neighborhood girl, abusing her when her mother was working in the garden. It all came out when the girl complained to her kindergarten educator. The abuser didn’t confess when arrested.

After the story went public a young woman came forward alleging that she had been abused, too, as a child by the same man. The case is being investigated separately.

Besides the jail time, the man was ordered to pay 10,000 lei ($2,385) in damages.

In a separate case, the Ungheni district court condemned a Nisporeni young man to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing his own mother.

The PGO says cases where sex offenders are family members, friends or acquaintances have been on the rise.

Last year, 611 sex crimes were recorded in Moldova, and 115 perpetrators of sexual violence went to jail. One in five inmates in Moldova’s prisons (1,189 in total) is a sex offender.