A child molester apologized for his crimes Friday before a judge sentenced him to nearly 30 years in prison.

“I just want to say that I’m sorry,” 29-year-old David E. Guthrie said at his sentencing in Douglas County District Court. “I knew it was wrong, and I deserve my sentence.”

Guthrie pleaded no contest in November to molesting three girls — ages 2, 4 and 6 — all of whom were acquaintances. Police arrested him after a family member found a home videotape that depicted him touching the girls inappropriately. The crimes occurred between February and April 2003.

“I would like to see him go through the torture that my kids have gone through,” the mother of the two older girls told Judge Paula Martin before Guthrie was sentenced.

Guthrie has four misdemeanor sex crimes in his past, including a 1995 conviction for grabbing women’s buttocks at random throughout Lawrence. Police said he liked to videotape children at public places in Lawrence.

The 352-month sentence Martin handed down was nearly a third longer than what prosecutors recommended as part of a plea agreement.

Guthrie received about 14 1/2 years for rape of the 2-year-old girl, plus about five years each for three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

Defense attorney Jim George requested several times before sentencing that Martin allow Guthrie a mental evaluation by an expert or at Larned State Security Hospital before sentencing. But Martin denied George’s requests again Friday, saying mental health treatment is available through the Kansas Department of Corrections.

If the Department of Corrections can’t offer it, it can order Guthrie be sent to Larned, Martin said.