The mother of two of the three children molested by a man who pleaded no contest to charges in the case said Monday she was relieved — and angry.

David E. Guthrie, 29, who police said liked to videotape children at public places around Lawrence, pleaded no contest to charges including rape of a 2-year-old girl and inappropriately touching two other girls, ages 4 and 6.

The plea came days before Guthrie was to stand trial. And while the mother of the two older victims said she was relieved she didn’t have to go through a trial, she was angry Guthrie didn’t plead guilty.

“Why couldn’t he be man enough to plead guilty?” she asked. “He was a friend and all that. He was like my brother, and he did what he did to my kids … I’ve only forgiven him because that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m a Christian.”

Guthrie was convicted in 1995 in Douglas County for grabbing women’s buttocks at random on the street. He told a police detective that after that conviction he’d been allowed to finish a sex-offender treatment program at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center even though he didn’t think he was ready to graduate.

Bert Nash officials acknowledged their sex-offender program ended in the 1990s but said they never rushed anyone out of treatment.

Earlier this year, Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Guthrie after a family member found a videotape of him performing sex acts with the children. The evidence depicted enough contact between Guthrie and the 2-year-old girl to fit the legal definition of rape, District Judge Paula Martin ruled after a preliminary hearing.

During a recorded interview after the arrest, sheriff’s Detective Doug Woods alluded to videotapes Guthrie allegedly made of young girls outside Deerfield School, outside a swimming pool and in the parking lot of the former Kmart. Woods asked Guthrie how many years he had been filming children; Guthrie replied, “I haven’t been doing it that long.”

Later, Guthrie told Woods he was molested by his older brother at age 11.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation Registered Offender list

The mother of the two older victims said she didn’t think her daughters remembered what happened to them.

“Unless they come to me about it, I’m not going to say a word,” she said. “I asked my older daughter if she remembered anything — if anything was bad. She knows what bad touch and good touch is, but she was asleep. She doesn’t remember.”

Guthrie will appear Jan. 9 for sentencing on one count of rape, three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and three counts of sexual exploitation of a child.