MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) –A 62-year-old Maplewood man and self-proclaimed pastor was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison for raping two young girls for almost a decade.

Jacoby Kindred was convicted on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and was given consecutive sentences of 144 months for each.

According to the criminal complaint, Kindred was considered the grandfather to his two victims, even though he was actually the father of their mother’s ex-boyfriend, and not a blood relative.

The victims — who are now both teenagers — would often sleep over at Kindred’s home beginning when they were both young girls.

The mother of the victims said she only discovered the abuse in 2013 when she found a letter written by one of her daughters while cleaning out her basement.

One of the victims told investigators that Kindred would justify his sexual abuse by telling her that the devil was inside her, and he could remove the demons.

The victim said Kindred began having sexual intercourse with her when she was 15. He would give her rides to her boyfriend’s home, which was against her mother’s wishes. He would then threaten to tell her mother about being with her boyfriend if she wouldn’t have sex with him.

She said the abuse ended when she ran away in late December 2012 or early January 2013.

Kindred told investigators in August 2013 that he was a pastor with One Accord Ministries, but said the church was without a building.

When police first informed him of allegations of inappropriate behavior, Kindred denied them and said the victims’ mother was making it up because her new boyfriend didn’t like him.

In his last interview with police, he denied the allegations again, referred to Minnesota as a “ladies’ state” and then abruptly ended the meeting.

“Get your warrants, do what you gotta do. No DNA, none of that,” Kindred said. “You weren’t there, nobody was there!”

In the trial, Kindred’s defense argued that the state didn’t prove that a significant relationship existed between him and the victims.

Motions for an acquittal were denied.