LONDON, ON - A 69-year old man jailed for a year Friday for sexual interference of a two-year-old girl said he was "deeply sorry" but a judge wasn't so sure.

Superior Court Justice Terrence Patterson said it appears the man, who holds strong Christian beliefs, "remains in denial of it."

A pre-sentence report indicated the man wasn't taking responsibility and had shifted the blame to the child.

"He has to look into himself much more deeply," the judge said.

The identity of the girl is protected by court order. The man was her step-grandfather who had married her grandmother.

Up until a last-minute guilty plea in April, he was intending to take the case to trial.

Court was told that in 2010 the marriage was rocked after the man was found in the bathroom with the girl touching his erect penis over his shorts. Later he was seen by his wife sitting the basement and the child was on a couch with her diaper around her knees and her shirt pulled up.

The woman reported the assault to police. The man later told police he had been aroused before by children and he had acted out once years earlier in another country but was never charged.

His crime against the child here sparked months of turmoil for family members who had trusted the man.

The child's parents and grandmother read emotional victim impact statements describing how they have lost faith and trust because of the man's actions.

His wife had met him online and believed he wanted a relationship with her.

"He didn't want me, he wanted my grandchildren," she said.

The events "ripped out my heart as a mother and a grandmother," she said. She spoke of sleepless nights and feelings of guilt for bringing the man into her family.

The child's mother said in her statement she fears the long-term effect of the abuse on her daughter. She said she regards the man with "complete disdain."

The girl's father said he felt "a sense of shame for not going with my gut instinct to keep my children away" from the man.

He called the man's crime "a single-minded selfish act that has shattered so many lives for self gratification."

Defence lawyer Robert Kitto told the judge the man has been receiving counselling and is still struggling to reconcile his behaviour with his Christian beliefs. The crime, he said, wasn't planned, but "opportunistic."

The man said he was sorry for the suffering he's caused and "their fear of me coming to their home or somehow invading their privacy is not something I would ever contemplate."

Patterson said he believed the man hasn't come to terms with what he's done.

He also ordered three years' probation with strict terms to stay away from children and the family.