A woman has been sentenced to a minimum of 3 1/2 years for taking two young girls to State Correctional Institution at Retreat to be molested by a convicted killer.

Rebecca Ann Butler, 42, of Danville, was convicted in February of two counts each of endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy to allow indecent assault of a child.

Luzerne County Judge Michael Vough on Friday sentenced Butler to 3 1/2 years to 10 years in state prison.

At trial, prosecutors claimed the Danville woman brought the children to the Newport Township prison numerous times for several years, starting when they were 4 and 7 years old, to visit convicted murderer Andre VanCliff, 47, who is serving a life sentence in state prison for a Philadelphia killing.

"You created this whole situation," Vough told Butler.

A tearful Butler told Vough she put the kids at risk but she "did not conspire with him to molest" the children.

Prosecutors say the two became pen pals after VanCliff saw Butler's name in a newspaper story and wrote her a letter. Butler responded, continued communications with him and began visiting VanCliff with the girls. Butler continued to communicate with VanCliff even after being told authorities were investigating the alleged abuse, prosecutors said.

At trial, an intelligence supervisor at the prison testified prison officials learned of the sexual abuse in September 2012 after they launched a separate investigation into VanCliff and started to scrutinize his mail. He said prison staffers found a letter VanCliff addressed to Butler that was written in a sexually explicit manner to one of the girls. A search of VanCliff's cell turned up three photos of him groping the girls during one of his visits with Butler and the girls in a prison visiting room.