Getty Images

Former NFL linebacker Nate Webster has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for having sex with a teenage girl.

Webster was found guilty of four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in April and has been locked up since then. He was accused of having a sexual relationship with a girl when she was 15 and he was in his 30s, and of threatening to kill her and her family if she told anyone. Webster admitted he had sex with the girl but claimed it was consensual and that the sexual relationship began after she turned 16, which is the age of consent in Ohio.

The girl is the daughter of an NFL assistant coach. To preserve the victim’s privacy, neither the girl nor her father are being publicly identified.

Webster could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said that before the trial, he turned down a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for four years. Webster played for the Buccaneers from 2000 to 2003, for the Bengals in 2004 and 2005 and for the Broncos from 2006 to 2008.