GRAND HAVEN — A 39-year-old Florida man has been ordered to serve a year in jail for sexually harassing a teenage Grand Haven-area girl.

The man was living in the Grand Haven area at the time and was in a relationship with the girl’s mother.

Adam Thomas Gates of Avon Park, Florida, will also serve five years of probation once he gets out of jail, reported the Grand Haven Tribune. He must also register as a sex offender. He was given credit for 131 days already served in jail.

Gates pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct during a Jan. 13 hearing in Ottawa County Circuit Court.

The teen said Gates paid a lot of attention to her and touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions.

She never told her mother because she didn’t want to destroy her mother’s happiness, she told the court during Monday’s sentencing hearing. She called Gates a “monster,” and said he destroyed the life she knew.

As his manipulation of the teen continued, she started doing drugs and tried to kill herself, she said. But she’s fighting back.

“The little girl you took is no longer a little girl, but a strong young woman,” the teen said.

Her mother told the court she’s learned monsters do exist and “sometimes they disguise themselves as the perfect package.”

The woman said she is embarrassed and feels like a failure as a mother for not catching on to what was happening.

“The man preyed on us from the first time he saw us,” she said. “He is a predator without conscious.”

Although Gates does not have a criminal record, the victim’s mother said he was too practiced for this to have been his first time.

Judge Karen Miedema also noted the court did not consider the incident to be an isolated event.