MONTGOMERY – A Montgomery man could be more than 100 years old before he completes his prison sentence for raping a child.?Gary Segraves of Montgomery was sentenced Thursday, June 30 to 71 to 142 years in prison. In January, 2010 he was found guilty of 74 counts, including rape by forcible compulsion, rape of a child and indecent deviate sexual assault, aggravated assault, corruption of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child.?”I could give you a sensationalist sentence of 300 or 600 years, but that means nothing in the practical world. It just generates headlines,” Lycoming County Judge Marc F. Lovecchio said Thursday before sentencing Segraves to a lengthy state prison for sexually abusing a girl over a nearly two-year period beginning when she was 11.

istrict Attorney Eric R. Linhardt sought a sentence of 80 to 200 years and said Segraves did not deserve the hope of ever being paroled due to the nature of the offenses.

“There are few crimes more heinous or have a more lasting impact on a victim than the repeated rape of child,” Linhardt said. “I can’t imagine this is something (the victim) is ever going to get over.”

Linhardt continued by saying a sentence that amounts to life in prison would be the most appropriate.

In addition to the state prison term, Lovecchio also sentenced Segraves to serve five years’ probation and determined him to be a sexually violent predator.

Segraves, therefore, must register as a sex offender in accordance with Megan’s Law for the remainder of his life.

Earlier this year, Segraves’ wife, Melissa, was sentenced to eight to 23 1/2 months in county prison on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child for knowing about the abuse and allowing it to continue.