ATCHISON ? An Atchison man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for molesting two young children at his wife’s unlicensed home day-care center.

Rockey Rash pleaded no contest in September to charges of aggravated sodomy, attempted aggravated sodomy and indecent liberties with a child in a case that involved 3- and 5-year-old girls.

Rash also faces various child abuse counts in Jackson County, Mo., in unrelated incidents that occurred in 1995.

During the sentencing hearing Thursday in Atchison County District Court, Rash apologized for his actions.

“I know what I did was wrong and that I need to be punished for it,” Rash said. “God is punishing me right now.”

Rash and his attorney, Robert Campbell, asked Judge Martin Asher to order that any sentences run concurrently, noting that Rash had cooperated with authorities in Kansas and Missouri.

But Asher said Rash’s crimes were among the most heinous and despicable that he had seen, and ordered that sentences on the three separate crimes run consecutively.

“You’ve shown by your actions that you cannot be left in civilized society,” he said. “It is the court’s hope that you would be kept locked up as long as the law allows.”

Asher also ordered Rash to pay restitution for any future counseling the families may need.

In the Jackson County, Mo., case, prosecutors have charged Rash with four counts of statutory sodomy, five counts of child molestation and two counts of statutory rape. Those charges involve a boy and girl who were 6 and 7 years old when the incidents occurred in 1995. Those cases were reopened when the charges in Atchison were made public.