Kansas City, Mo ? In what some have called one of Jackson County’s most disturbing child sexual abuse cases in years, a jury has recommended a Kansas City man serve 555 years in prison for molesting two girls.

On Friday, the Circuit Court jury convicted Kenneth D. Fitzwater of 16 sex counts and one count of felonious restraint. Jurors on Monday suggested 44 years for each of 10 sodomies and two rapes, plus various lesser sentences for other crimes.

Last week, prosecutors argued that Fitzwater used threats backed by sexual and physical abuse to control the two girls. The abuse lasted from September 1998 to February 2002 at two Kansas City houses, including one that had an attic room that became a sexual torture chamber.

One girl, now 16, said Fitzwater raped and sodomized her from 1998 to 2001, when she left the area. The other girl, now 14, said he regularly bound her with cord and gagged her with duct tape in front of a video camera in the attic, then sodomized her.

She said the abuse continued from September 1999 to Feb. 13, 2002, when she went to police.

Fitzwater’s attorney told jurors Monday in the sentencing phase that other than the sex convictions, his client has a spotless record. The attorney, Louis Caskey, asked jurors to recommend minimum sentences.

Caskey said Fitzwater drove a large tow truck, never drank or used drugs, and was on call 24 hours a day.

“He was at the crest of a career,” Caskey said.

Fitzwater will be sentenced next month.