Anthony Mastrangelo, the 27-year-old Bethany man who pleaded guilty in May to sexually abusing girls at a town-run camp afterschool program and while babysitting, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, suspended after he serves four years, the result of a plea deal.

He was handcuffed and taken into custody after a sentencing hearing in New Haven on Tuesday.

Mastrangelo’s crimes prompted a firestorm in the small town where he was once considered a trusted friend and caretaker for local children, resulting in his incarceration and modest changes to state laws regarding municipal programs for children, which run with no state oversight.

The case also led to the resignation of former Bethany First Selectwoman Paula Cofrancesco, who was found in an independent investigation to have deceived residents and resisted efforts to make programs for children safer.

But on Tuesday, the most significant impacts of Mastrangelo’s crimes were heard in victims’ statements that expressed the trauma, anger and confusion left in the wake of his actions. Parents who said they’d experienced a nightmare scenario also expressed disillusionment at the negligence of Bethany’s municipal programs.

The first statement came from the father of one of the girls abused by Mastrangelo when she was 9. Identifying himself as A.A., he said that he couldn’t believe such events could have transpired at a municipal program, which he expected would have oversight. In the extended period after her abuse was investigated and before Mastrangelo’s arrest, he said, the family avoided town events for fear that they would see Mastrangelo “or the people that enabled him.” He said he was haunted by memories of Mastrangelo hugging his child in the parking lot and approaching him to say he wanted to babysit his kids because he liked them so much.

“I feel horrible. Horrible he did this to our daughter. Horrible he did this to our friends. Horrible I didn’t see the signs,” he said.

Statements by victims reflected the inability of children as young as 9 to comprehend the nature of the abuse or how to stop it. In one statement, a victim said she’d been abused when other camp staff were in the room and hoped someone would notice.

The theme of grooming was repeated during the sentencing hearing, including by Judge Tracy Lee Dayton, who wondered if there were other victims: “It’s hard for me to believe that these are the only five people that you hurt.”

“This behavior is shockingly predatory,” Dayton said. Dayton said she was “revolted” when she read through court documents and saw that Mastrangelo enrolled in Quinnipiac University to pursue a degree in elementary education when he was already under investigation for sexually assaulting “little girls.”

“I could think of one reason why you’d want to be in a school — the same reason you’d want to work in a camp,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of young ladies and a lot of their parents have had to learn very, very difficult lessons because you think your child is going to be safe at school, your child is going to be safe at home, you think your child’s safe at camp — community camp.”

Dayton said she was torn about the length of the sentence, part of a plea deal agreed upon by another judge in her absence, but said that completing sentencing on Tuesday would ensure that the families didn’t have to return to court.

Dayton also commended Amy Lestinsky, the mother of one of the girls, who has publicly fought for justice over the past two years even as the identities of most of the families have remained private.

Lestinsky’s daughter spoke briefly to the court, and then Lestinsky spoke at length. She said that the experience had left her slow to trust other people and that she has been called a bad mother for so publicly speaking about her daughter’s assault. Lestinsky addressed Mastrangelo directly, wondering whether he was grooming her family to trust him.

When Mastrangelo abused her daughter while babysitting, more than a year had passed since he’d been investigated for abusing four other girls. He had lost his job at the Bethany school and Parks and Rec program but had not yet been arrested, and the investigation was not widely known.

“You chose the wrong child to sexually abuse, because this victim, my daughter, has a mother who will not be quiet. A mother who will fight ’til the very end and make sure justice is served,” she said. She wished him and his family to endure suffering like her family. “No child ever deserves to be treated the way you treated the victims. You took advantage of their innocence, you took advantage of the trust they had in you. I hope you see yourself for the piece of garbage you are every time you look in the mirror.”

Lestinsky also addressed his mother, saying she swept the accusations against her son “under the rug.”

“I hope you remember every day what an atrocious mother you are,” she said.

Some of the statements on Tuesday reflected the betrayal felt by parents who assumed that municipal camps, like the one where Mastrangelo worked in Bethany, would be safe environments for kids. As Mastrangelo’s actions came to light, so too did revelations about the lack of licensure and state oversight for such camps. The state has little idea about how many such camps exist, how many children attend them or what rules and regulations govern them.

Towns and cities across the state have repeatedly argued that no such regulation is needed because there is built-in oversight from local governments and that creating licensure requirements would prove expensive, forcing some camps to close their doors and depriving families of safe and affordable childcare options.

Some proposals to regulate camps failed in recent years, but this year, a modest bill was passed that creates new mandated reporter requirements for camp staff and requires a report by the Office of Early Childhood and other stakeholders on the landscape of such programs in Connecticut.

In addition to his prison sentence, Mastrangelo was also sentenced to 10 years of sex offender probation, a more restrictive form of probation that requires therapeutic treatment. When he is released from prison, Mastrangelo will also have to register as a sex offender. Dayton also issued restraining orders that bar Mastrangelo from coming near the victims or contacting them for the next 50 years.