PEARISBURG - A circuit court judge formally sentenced a former Pembroke pastor Thursday to serve 8 1/2 years in prison for molesting a child, two years less than the jury's recommendation.

The decision guarantees that Roger Holcomb, former pastor of the Pembroke Church of God, will be monitored once he is released from prison, Circuit Judge Colin Gibb said during a sentencing hearing in Giles County Circuit Court. "I think the crime was a serious crime," Gibb told Holcomb. "I don't have any doubt that you did it. I think you did it, and I think you need a substantial prison sentence."

In February, a jury of six men and six women took seven hours to convict Holcomb, 52, of two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor for fondling and forcing a now-7-year-old girl to touch him during the summer of 2003. The jury found him not guilty on three other sex charges involving two more children.

Gibb, worried that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving post-prison supervision could affect a Virginia statute that allows judges to impose probation time after a defendant serves an entire prison sentence, used another option. Gibb suspended two years of Holcomb's 10 1/2 -year term and added 20 years of supervised probation. "I'm not doing it, really, to cut him a break," Gibb told the attorneys. I'm doing it to make sure he's supervised."

Originally, five children, now ages 7 to 10, came forward in September 2003 and accused Holcomb of molesting them earlier that year at the church's parsonage in Pembroke. The charges involving two of the five were dropped during the course of the trial because of inconsistent testimony from those children.

Holcomb maintains his innocence. A presentence report said Holcomb's behavior and denial of his crime brings "a moderate risk to re-offend without appropriate supervision and boundaries," Gibb said.

Holcomb told Gibb on Thursday that his problems came from stepping outside the duties of his ministry and trying to minister to a family.

"I would like to ask your honor to look in my heart," Holcomb said. "I went beyond my duties as a pastor."

Holcomb's friends and family members called to testify Thursday described happy family gatherings and Holcomb's interaction with other children as evidence that the jury erred in its verdicts.

"This is really hard because I just don't see my brother as a molester," his sister, Karen Moss, testified. "My heart goes out to the [victim's] family ... They're looking out for the little girl, and I understand that. But I also have compassion for my brother."

Holcomb cried during much of the testimony.

"Roger doesn't have a pastoral ministry left," testified Robert Vineyard, a longtime friend and pastor of Greenway Baptist Church in Stephens City.

Defense attorney Thomas DeBusk argued that this loss was punishment enough for Holcomb and urged the judge to suspend the prison sentence and instead release Holcomb on probation.

"Mr. Holcomb is going to live the rest of his life as a convicted sex offender," DeBusk said. "That alone will bar him from ever pastoring a church again."

But Giles County Commonwealth's Attorney Philip Steele said the jury's sentence was fair considering the trust Holcomb violated, both as a community's pastor and as a family's friend.

The victim's mother, who is not being named to protect her daughter's identity, said the abuse continues to affect her daughter. She is "a little child haunted by the knowledge of an adult," the mother said.

The family has been unable to afford professional counseling and is working together to help the youngster, she said.

"She's just stripped of being a little kid," she said. "Every day of her life now is affected by something of an adult manner. It could be something on TV. It could be a car we pass that looks like his."

DeBusk said after the hearing that he and Holcomb had not decided whether to appeal the verdict.