SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A 40-year-old man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old and 18-year-old while he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood.
Craig Ralston was sentenced Tuesday for sex crimes involving the 5-year-old girl in 2003 and the 18-year-old in 2008.
The Springfield News-Leader reports he met both victims while attending church in St. Robert.
Prosecutors said Ralston’s history of abusing children began when he was 13 years old.
He was previously convicted of taking indecent liberties with a 12-year-old child in Kansas in 2009.
Ralston apologized before his sentencing for the crimes and for being a bad husband.
Prosecutors had asked that Ralston be sentenced to life in prison.
Ralston was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release after his incarceration.
