photo by: Nick Krug

Defendant Andrew Tribble turns to be escorted from the courtroom following a hearing with Judge Sally Pokorny in Douglas County District Court on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017.

A 17-year-old girl faced her rapist — a Lawrence man who had continually sexually assaulted her since before she was 10 — in court Thursday, moments before a judge ordered him to prison for his crimes.

“You stole my childhood away from me,” the girl told him, reading her statement steadily through tears.

“I kept telling you how this was hurting me … I realized I had two choices — to shut down or to speak up.”

In August 2017, Andrew L. Tribble, 40, was arrested and charged with a dozen felony counts of rape and other sex crimes against the girl occurring over more than six years.

On Thursday, Douglas County District Court Judge Sally Pokorny ordered Tribble to 27 1/2 years in prison for two counts of rape and one count of aggravated criminal sodomy.

Pokorny said it was the maximum prison time she could give under state sentencing guidelines for the convictions. In April, Tribble pleaded no contest to those counts, and the rest were dropped as part of the plea deal.

Supporters of the girl filled the courtroom behind her.

In addition to her relatives, they included representatives from the area chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse, wearing leather vests emblazoned with a fist and the phrase, “No child deserves to live in fear.” One biker, a woman, stood next to the girl as she spoke.

The teen said the abuse actually began years before the criminal charges reflected, and that by the time she was 9 she wanted to die.

She had no idea what a normal childhood was supposed to be like, she said. She said she didn’t understand why this was happening to her and felt “very alone.”

She said Tribble’s “true colors” were no longer covered up.

“You have lost this fight,” she told him.

Tribble, seated nearby, buried his face in his hands.

His appointed attorney, Michael Clarke, said Tribble had planned to read a statement of his own but that he was unable to. Clarke read it for him.

In the statement, Tribble said there were circumstances that led to what happened, “circumstances that ate me from the inside.” He said he should have walked away from the behavior years ago, and since his arrest had come to terms with what he had done.

“Please understand that I am sorry,” Tribble said in the statement.

Clarke said that Tribble accepted responsibility, was remorseful and, in entering plea, wanted to avoid a trial that would have required the girl to take the witness stand.

Before his arrest, Tribble was a senior maintenance worker for the city and had coached youth sports in Lawrence.

He was involved with teams including softball and Douglas County Amateur Baseball Association teams. None were Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department Youth Sports Division teams, which do not pay coaches but vet them, city officials have said.

Tribble has remained jailed on $300,000 bond since his arrest. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has declined to release his mugshot to the Journal-World.

Prosecutor Mark Simpson asked the judge to confirm Tribble was indigent and had no financial assets, which Pokorny did and waived his court costs.

In addition to registering as a sex offender, Pokorny said, he will be supervised for the rest of his life after leaving prison.