A court in Greenville, South Carolina, has handed down a 20-year sentence to a man convicted of raping a five-year-old girl and infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease, a report says.

Ricky Anthony Yeldell, Jr., 23, had pleaded guilty during his earlier trial to two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and this week, Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith sentenced the man to 20 years on the first count and 15 years suspended on the second.

After Yeldell’s sentencing, David Stumbo, solicitor for the Eighth Judicial Circuit in Greenville, said:

After Yeldell serves the 20-year active prison sentence in the state prison system he will have an additional 15-year consecutive sentence hanging over his head should he violate his probation conditions. Those conditions include sex offender registry, GPS monitoring and no contact with minor children.

Emergency room doctors examined Yeldell’s young victim in July of 2014, determining that it was clear the child had been raped. They also detected an STD, the same disease that tests revealed the suspect had. This made it clear the child had been raped at least one time before the July examination.

“It’s absolutely despicable to think that a grown man, who is supposed to protect, could harm a young child in such a way,” Stumbo added. “We will fight for our kids as long as I am in this office to put sick predators like Ricky Yeldell where they belong – behind bars.”

Yeldell will find his second 15-year sentence reinstated if he violates parole during his two years of supervision.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.