Two weeks before an 8-year-old was set to testify against the man who pleaded guilty to molesting her since she was a baby, her parents had to call for emergency help to stop her from carrying out a suicide plan, they testified.

Noel Young Anderson (Collin County Sheriff's Office)

Her allegations against Noel Young Anderson had sparked a McKinney police investigation in March 2018. She was the only one of the five victims investigators found who was able to take the stand. Most of the girls were too young to remember what Anderson said he did to them.

In court testimony this week, her parents recounted the trauma Anderson had inflicted on them and their daughter — trauma that they believe led her to contemplate suicide.

Jurors deliberated for nearly two full days before sentencing the 23-year-old Friday to 50 years in prison for continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14.

He had faced 25 years to life after he pleaded guilty to the charge in a Collin County court.

Most of the victims don't remember being molested, for which their parents are grateful. But the abuse has damaged many of their family members' relationships and trust.

Some have left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on North Lake Forest Drive, where Anderson taught 7- and 8-year olds.

He didn't molest the girls he taught at church, he told police. They were too old and might have talked, he said.

Instead, he chose the infants he babysat for fellow parishioners.

When the girl who testified against him was 18 months old, he masturbated as he changed her diapers. As she grew older he began molesting her and forcing her to perform sex acts on him. That continued until she was 6.

"This is what turns him on," prosecutor Nick Lawrence told jurors, pointing to a baby photo of the girl in a yellow onesie, with her baby teeth just beginning to grow in.

Anderson told police he'd tried to stop abusing children but began again after he was asked to babysit a previous victim when he returned from a church mission trip. He said he couldn't help but continue the abuse because of his "history" with her.

"What kind of 'history' can you possibly have with a 6-year-old?" chief felony prosecutor Geeta Singleton asked the jury Thursday morning. "He used these babies to live out his own sexual fantasies."

The parents of one 3-year-old became suspicious of Anderson after the girl came home and told her where he had "tickled" her.

She was too young to explain what she meant, so her parents did not call police, but they forbade their children from visiting Anderson. When they attended church two days later, her father had to stop her from going to sit with Anderson when he motioned for her to join him in the back of the church, the father testified Thursday.

Her father hasn't attended church since police confirmed last year that Anderson had abused the girl. He said knowing that Anderson lied his way through spiritual counseling and continued abusing girls had shaken his trust and faith.

"He's got a very dark soul," the man said.