Despite protests that he was guilty only of possessing child pornography, an 81-year-old former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander was sentenced Monday to 27 years to life in prison for molesting an 8-year-old girl who stayed in his Manhattan Beach house during a family visit.

Robert Dean Lee, given a chance to speak at his sentencing hearing in Torrance Superior Court, denied kissing the girl’s genital area and said he never gave her sex toys that he claimed she discovered during a ride in his car.

“I did not molest that child,” Lee said. “So help me God, I never touched a child down there sexually. … I’m not lying!”

A Torrance jury found Lee guilty in March of four counts of lewd act upon a child, and one count each of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years old or younger.

Lee, who also formerly worked as a Delta Airlines pilot, also was found guilty of possessing more than 20,000 images of child pornography in hard-copy photographs and on computer hard drives. Some images dated back 10 years, and about 600 depicted prepubescent children, prosecutors said.

Lee repeatedly molested the girl in July 2014 when her family — distant relatives of Lee’s — stayed with him and his wife in their home. During the trial, the girl testified that Lee kissed and touched her private area, forced her to touch his genitals in his bedroom and, on rides in his vintage Chevrolet Corvette, gave her a book about sexuality, discussed masturbation with her and provided her with vibrators.

In court Monday, Lee said he had kept the sex toys in his car since he was in his 60s and had an affair with adult women. He was unable to come up with an answer when Judge Mark Arnold asked him to identify the women.

In letters to the court, the girl’s grandmother and mother said Lee was always known as “Uncle Bob,” who loved playing with children who visited and letting them sit on his lap. Now, the mother said, he is a “monster.”

“I will never forgive you for destroying our family the way you did,” the girl’s mother wrote. “You are disgusting and a disgrace to the family.”

Lee’s attorney Harland Braun asked Arnold for leniency in sentencing Lee, saying his client had a fascination with child porn that he had not acted on for 60 years and finally succumbed to his impulses at his old age.

Arnold said Lee did not deserve leniency and sentenced him to a term where he will likely die in prison. Should Lee live long enough to be released, he would be required to register as a sex offender.