Advertisement Man convicted of stalking terminally-ill girl sentenced Shannon Bailey claims he's misunderstood Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A 30-year-old man is going to prison for stalking a 12-year-old girl while she was in intensive care.In court Monday, the girl's mother tearfully told him to leave them alone.VIDEO: Judge gives man maximum sentence for stalking girlThe judge gave Shannon Bailey the maximum sentence, which for stalking is 1½ in prison and two years probation. The judge told him when his prison time is done, she wants him out of the state.Shannon Bailey, of West Virginia, admitted he learned about the terminally ill girl on the Caring Bridge site used by families to give mass updates on a loved ones' health conditions. He eventually sent Facebook messages to the girl he'd never met and made his way to Children's Hospital and her Waukesha home in an effort to see her."My daughter turned 12 years old in an ICU room unconscious, waiting for a liver to save her life. At that same time, Shannon Bailey was continually posting love letters, marriage proposals stating God had destined this, and that he wouldn't stop fighting for their love. Just saying that out loud makes me sick to my stomach," the stalking victim's mother, Carrie Ganiere-Stieghorst, said.The girl, now 13, has a long road to recovery, and her mother said it's been made a lot longer by Bailey, who claims he's misunderstood."But I love her, and I care for her. But I don't love her in the way some people maybe were misled to believe. My intentions towards her were no obsession or infatuation or some deviant sexual fantasy, nothing of that nature," Bailey said."What you have taken from us we can never get back. The childhood innocence you have taken from my children can never be replaced. You did that," Ganiere-Stieghorst said.The judge made it a part of her order that the Department of Corrections work with the state of West Virginia to make sure Bailey serves his probation there, far away from the girl he still claims to love.Bailey has already served six months in jail awaiting the trial and sentencing, so he will be eligible to be released in about a year.He promised to leave the family alone.