The best way to protect the public from an elderly pedophile is to keep him locked up, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Sherwood Stevenson, 73, of Independence in Beaver County, pleaded guilty in July to traveling to Florida in December 2009 so he could take a cruise on which he hoped to have sexual encounters with young boys. He succeeded in fondling a 6-year-old boy who was briefly left unattended in a hot tub, prosecutors say.

“I sincerely want to apologize to the family and the child. I regret what I did,” Stevenson said during his sentencing.

His attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Marketa Sims, asked U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond to consider Stevenson’s age, frailty and lifelong mental illness when issuing a sentence. The judge did, but not in the way she hoped.

Diamond said the pre-sentence investigation shows Stevenson has been spying on young boys and attempting to have sexual encounters with them since he was in college. It’s clear that he’ll keep trying unless he’s locked up, Diamond said.

“I believe that incapacitation — or protecting the public — is the main factor here,” he said.

He sentenced Stevenson to four years and nine months in prison, the maximum sentence allowed under a plea agreement between Stevenson and the government. He also sentenced Stevenson to 15 years of probation and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine. Stevenson will have to register as a sex offender.

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