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A Freeborn County District Court judge sentenced an area man to 25 1/2 years in prison Friday for sexually abusing a family member on multiple occasions in 2016.

Elijah Thomas Berryman, 25, will be required to register as a predatory offender for the rest of his life and will be on conditional release for life upon his release from prison.

Berryman will serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison with the remainder on supervised release. He will receive credit for 401 days already served in the Freeborn County jail.

According to court documents, the victim stated the assaults, which included both sexual touching and penetration, occurred when Berryman was 18.

“Your actions have consequences,” Judge Christy Hormann said upon announcing the sentence.

Berryman in March pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim under 13 while the defendant was more than 36 months older.

Berryman’s lawyer, Scott Cody, asked the judge to consider a dispositional departure from sentencing guidelines and to instead place his client on probation so he could attend an intensive sex offender treatment program. He referenced his client’s age, remorse and lack of criminal history and said

Berryman was not a threat to the public.

Cody said what the public needed more was for Berryman to become a contributing member of society.

Berryman, when given the chance to speak himself, said there was no way forward unless he was honest with himself and said he had spent a long time denying what had happened.

He said there is an infinite debt he can’t pay back but hoped his plea and the sentence could give his family member a sense of justice and of being heard.

Assistant Freeborn County Attorney Abigail Lambert said Berryman’s psychosexual evaluation referenced Berryman abusing the boy 14 to 16 times and referenced the sexual fantasies he had, including of nonconsensual sex, and that he had admitted to viewing child pornography.

Lambert said Berryman’s pre-sentence investigation voiced concerns as well, noting that Berryman was primarily worried about the price he was going to have to pay for the crime and pointed out that he had even asked the victim to recant his statement.

She questioned if he did feel remorse and said Berryman was concerned about what was going to happen with him and his fiancée, who lives in Europe, whom he had never met.

She said Berryman had only initially confessed to the acts because a family member had taken him to the law enforcement center.

“He doesn’t show remorse, he shows self-centeredness,” Lambert said, adding that he was not amenable to probation and could be a flight risk, considering his desire to leave and go to Europe.

Freeborn County Sheriff Ryan Shea, in testifying about Berryman’s demeanor during his initial interview with law enforcement, said Berryman was willing to admit to some of the things that had occurred but tried to minimize what happened. Berryman also maintained that the acts occurred prior to the age of 18 and that the acts were consensual. Berryman also had concern for public perception and the punishment he would receive.

Hormann said after reading through all of the reports and listening to the statements made in the case, she had a hard time believing that Berryman had remorse for his actions and said she believed he was only sorry because he had been caught. She also said she thought Berryman was only worried about himself and what things meant for him.

She said she was not confident that sending him to treatment would make him a more productive member of society and said she could not find substantial and compelling reasons to grant the sentencing departure.

Hormann said she hoped the sentence would bring some comfort to the victim and that over time Berryman would achieve a true sense of remorse.