Dr. Aubrey Levin, a “gay cure” therapist convicted of sexually assaulting his male patients, has been sentenced in Canada to five years in prison.

The 74-year-old South African native had been facing eight years but the judge reduced his sentence due to his age and health problems.

Gay Star News reports:

Levin was convicted on three counts of sexual assault by a jury last week. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Shelley told the disgraced doctor that it was a “horrible violation of the trust of these three patients.” “They came to you for help for their problems,” she said. “Instead you added to their problems.” While the Crown asked for six to eight years, the defense argued Levin was a frail senior and suggested a sentence of 60-90 days to be served on weekends. Shelley said: “Dr Levin, knowing of the many vulnerabilities of these victims, employed a strategy which would give him the opportunity to sexually assault his patients. Dr Levin’s profession and his training would make him more informed than the average sexual assaulter to the serious psychological and emotional harm that can result from a sexual assault,” she added. “These three men were already emotionally and psychologically fragile.”

Levin was originally accused by nine different men but the jury acquitted him of two of those charges and were unable to reach a verdict on the other four victims.

Levin lost his license in 2010 after a former patient came forward with secret video footage he had recorded during court-ordered sessions with the therapist. The videos, played in court last fall, showed Levin undoing the man’s belt and jeans then appearing to fondle him.

Before emigrating to Canada, Levin earned the nickname Dr. Shock for subjecting hundreds of gay soldiers and conscientious objectors to electric shock “therapy” during South Africa’s apartheid era.

Last year, a South African journalist claimed that “Levin and his team also performed chemical castration as well as forced…gender reassignment surgery on gay men as a ‘cure’ for being gay.”

Levin’s defense attorney Chris Archer hopes his client will be released on bail once an appeal has been filed.

“With a 74-year-old man you’re looking at the end of your life and whether or not this is going to be a significant part of it or whether or not you’re going to die in jail,” Archer said.

We’re not legal experts or anything, but doesn’t a guy like this deserve to die in jail?