A Paulding County man has pleaded guilty in a North Dakota court to sexually molesting a toddler and a baby, officials said.

Timothy James Sprenger, 32, kept a diary detailing several years of the sex crimes, the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office said Monday in a statement.

Sprenger had formerly lived in North Dakota, where he molested a girl between the ages of 1 and 3, and another girl when she was 6 or 7 months old, the sheriff’s office said.

The first girl was molested more than 30 times, Paulding sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ashley Henson said in the statement.

Sprenger lived in Paulding County when someone gave authorities the diary in June 2017.

It had been torn into pieces and taped back together.

According to the Minot Daily News in North Dakota, a family member was the person who reported Sprenger to authorities after discovering the ripped journal while taking out the trash.

The crimes were committed more than a decade ago, but authorities were able to find the two victims, now 12 and still living in North Dakota.

A Paulding County sergeant interviewed Sprenger and got a full confession of the incidents.

He was arrested last September and extradited to North Dakota.

After pleading guilty, Sprenger was sentenced on Nov. 7 to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation.

He must complete sex offender treatment, register as a sex offender, and have no contact with the victims as a condition of his probation. If he fails to comply with those terms, his probation will be revoked and he will have to serve an additional 20 years in prison.

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November 17, 2018