DOYLESTOWN--A jury in Bucks County believed the testimony of six young former Amish sisters and convicted a 52-year-old man of three counts of rape and 14 other sex crimes Tuesday.

Lee Kaplan faces prison sentences of up to 20 years for each of the first-degree felony convictions and additional sentences for the other convictions. Judge Jeffrey Finley will sentence Kaplan at a later date.

Jurors deliberated about nine hours on Monday and Tuesday before issuing their unanimous verdict Tuesday afternoon after their lunch break.

Relatives of the victims, including an aunt, brother and grandparents, attended the reading of the verdict in a courtroom packed with spectators.

Three deputies surrounded Kaplan as the verdict was read. He showed no reaction and rocked in his chair as the jury foreman repeatedly said, "guilty," after each of the 17 counts. Later, his attorney conferred with him and Kaplan nervously twisted his beard, as he often did during trial testimony.

The defense attorney requested for each juror to individually affirm the verdict, which they did.

During deliberations, the jury of three women and nine men asked to review letters written in 2013 by the girls' mother and asked for a transcript of the recorded conversation between Savilla Stoltzfus and her daughters last October where Stoltzfus urged them to tell the truth. No transcript was available so jurors relied on their notes and recollections.

The conversation was key to Kaplan's defense because his attorney had argued that it amounted to coercion.

The four-day trial started last Wednesday.

The attorney for Kaplan had argued that the girls, now ages 9 to 19, lied on the stand when they said Kaplan initiated sexual contact with them, starting as young as seven. The sex acts continued regularly over the years, the girls testified, until Kaplan's arrest last June.

Kaplan reportedly asked all of the girls if they would be his "wives," after the girls' parents agreed to "gift" him one of their older daughters in exchange for his help in propping up the family business.

Kaplan gave the struggling Stoltzfus parents help at a time they desperately needed it, according to testimony, and Kaplan positioned himself as the authority over the family.

Kaplan used an inheritance from his dead mother to provide for them financially. He reportedly told the Stoltzfuses that he intended to strengthen their family's bloodline by inserting his own.

But Kaplan didn't provide any medical care or hygiene guidance to the girls over the near-decade he ruled over the family, according to testimony.

The girls had been kept isolated from doctors, dentists, and all "outsiders." They did not have birth certificates, were not enrolled in school and did not know how to wash their own hair. There were no toothbrushes in the house.

After Kaplan's arrest, two of the girls were found to have Lyme disease and nearly all had to have rotten teeth extracted, said Assistant District Attorney Kate Kohler. The oldest daughter needed oral surgery for a bone infection from tooth decay, she said.

The girls' parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, were each convicted in April of a single count of child endangerment for their role in allowing the intimacy with Kaplan. They have not been sentenced.

The prosecution's case was bolstered by one of Stolfzfus' older sons, who secretly made photocopies of letters his mother wrote in 2013 to his father after his calls for alarm to his father about Kaplan were ignored.

The son, Jacob Stoltzfus, testified that his 8-year-old sister told him in 2013 that Kaplan did something to her that "made her butt sore," and that he did it to the other girls as well.

Jacob, 22, came forward to prosecutors last year, prompting Savilla Stoltzfus' recorded meeting with her daughters.

Savilla Stoltzfus said if the truth was going to come out, she thought they all should share what they knew so it would be accurate.

Defense attorney Ryan Hyde noted at Kaplan's trial that the girls initially denied any sexual contact shortly after they were found living at Kaplan's Feasterville home.

The girls' stories changed when they admitted the sexual acts during the recorded interview in October.

Hyde attributed the girls' change of heart to pressure from their mother who was seeking a lenient sentence for her own conviction, but prosecutor Kate Kohler said the girls simply were empowered to share what they knew.

Kaplan previously told the girls to keep the activity a secret and the girls did not want to get Kaplan in trouble, Kohler told jurors.

Undisputed at trial was the fact that Kaplan impregnated the oldest of the daughters, first when she was 14 years-old and again when she was 17. Kaplan was in his mid-40s at the time.

She testified that Kaplan invited her to start sleeping in his room after he moved in with her family in Lancaster County and sexual activity began when she was 10. Her sister who was one year younger also started sleeping in his bedroom, according to trial testimony. She was the one who was originally intended to be "gifted" to Kaplan.

Those sisters were the first to move into Kaplan's home in Feasterville and the rest of the girls followed in 2013 when Savilla Stoltzfus moved in with him.

The girls' younger sisters testified with similar tales of going into Kaplan's locked bedroom for sexual activity, which they were told was God's will.

The girls' mother became one of the Kaplan's "wives" too, as a reward for his interpretation of dreams. Savilla Stoltzfus testified that she eventually became jealous of her children akin to "other women" after Kaplan preferred the company of her children over her.

The criminal charges were brought in Bucks County after authorities found 11 girls living in Kaplan's Feasterville home. The windows were covered by boards or blankets.

A neighbor spotted some of the girls in the yard last June and reported the occurrence because the girls looked "sad," and Kaplan was not known to have any children.

At that time, Kaplan remarked to police that he feared the day would come when "society would crash in on what he was trying to do with his family."

The girls, including the two youngest fathered by Kaplan, have been living together in foster care since last June. They have been enrolled in online classes and are learning new things, some of which they struggle to understand.

One girl revealed during the recorded conversation with her mother last year that she found birthday celebrations odd.

"The round cake, the candles... it comes straight out of witchcraft."