Saying he’s sorry and blaming his actions on blackout periods of drunkeness, a former U.S. Marine will serve eight years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 6-year-old girl.

Shaun Dahlke, 25, was sentenced in Clatsop County Circuit Court Tuesday during a sometimes tense hearing in which the girl’s father screamed at Dahlke “not to (expetive)?smile” in the courtroom. He was warned to keep quiet by sheriff’s deputies.

The girl’s family said Dahlke was getting off too easily.

“It really bothers me that he could have gotten more years,” said the girl’s father, as he gave a statement in court. “Laws change all the time and now we have to settle on eight years.”

He added his daughter will “have to deal with this for the rest of her life.”

The Daily Astorian does not publish the names of sex abuse victims and attempts to limit their familial information to protect their identities.

Dahlke abused the girl for a period of time when she was in his care. She eventually told her mother, who contacted authorities.

Though the girl was interviewed and examined at The Lighthouse, which performs child abuse assessments, it’s still unclear when exactly the abuse took place. Prosecutors say it was some time within the timeframe of 2009 to 2010.

Dahlke was arrested and charged last spring.

In a statement to the court, Dahlke stopped short of fully admitting guilt, but said he was sorry about the “accusations … true, false, whatever they may be.” He blamed his drinking problem for placing him in bad situations and said his family had warned him to “put the bottle down.”

Following the hearing, Dahlke’s mother said she believes her son is not guilty and only pleaded guilty to prevent a longer prison term.

If he’d been found guilty by a jury, he could have faced 38 years in prison.

“He was raised in a Christian home, but alcohol got ahold of him in the Marines,” Khristie Dahlke said during an interview.

She said her son can’t remember the nights when the abuse took place because he would drink so much he would black out.

Prosecutors said Dahlke gave enough information to investigators after his arrest that made them doubt he was completely blacked out.

When he’s released from prison, Dahlke will have to register as a sex offender and serve more than a decade of postprison supervision.