The victim of child molestation that occurred 12 years ago cannot escape the nightmares, anxiety attacks and low self worth caused by the crime.

“There’s no way I can describe the impact that his actions had on my life,” she wrote in a victim impact statement.

She asked the judge to sentence her abuser, former Oak Harbor resident Dennis McCoy, to the highest possible sentence.

McCoy pleaded guilty earlier this year to child molestation in the second degree and assault in the second degree.

On Feb. 26, Island County Superior Judge Vickie Churchill sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.

In a separate case, McCoy was charged in 2010 for possessing child pornography and convicted the following year. He was sentenced to jail for eight months.

A special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case last year after a girl disclosed that McCoy sexually abused her in Oak Harbor 10 years ago, when she was under 12 years old. The girl’s father was in the military but the family lived off base in Oak Harbor.

The girl said McCoy, who was a friend of the family, molested her on three occasions; in addition, she said McCoy showed her child pornography and watched her shower, the agent wrote.

McCoy served in the Navy for 16 years and is considered to be 100 percent disabled by the Veterans Administration because he suffers from the effects of post traumatic stress disorder; he “left the military a broken man in many ways,” his attorney wrote.

In the Navy, McCoy was a specialist in decoding radar missile systems and was also a rescue swimmer with 27 confirmed saves. He went on 23 deployments to places like Zaire, Bosnia and North Korea, court documents state.

“He does not offer this as an excuse for his behavior,” the attorney wrote, “and he readily acknowledges that many soldiers experience these stresses without committing crimes.”