A Santa Barbara man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for child molestation.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced the 92 years-to-life sentence for Robert Charles Hawley, 84, on Wednesday.
A Santa Barbara jury in March convicted him of nine counts of child molestation and sexual assault along with a special allegation that there were multiple victims.
The DA’s Office says the crimes were committed on three of Hawley’s own family members.
The case against Hawley first began after officials say someone called 911 to report seeing the man touching a young girl in a local supermarket.
“During the course of her thorough investigation, Santa Barbara Police Department Detective Megan Harrison uncovered multiple additional women who had been sexually victimized by the defendant and three of these women bravely testified at his trial,” officials said in a press release.
Victim impact statements from two victims were read during Wednesday’s sentencing. They reportedly expressed the damage Hawley caused not only them but also “betraying the family as a whole.”
